PR 



V 






ACADEMY ClASSiCS 



SELECTIONS 

FROM 

BROWNING 






ALIYl^AiDBACOiNf 







lili£< 







COrYRHGilT DEPOSIT. 




ROBERT BROWNING 



SELECTIONS 

FROM 

BROWNING'S POEMS 



EDITED BY 



J. CHARLES HAZZARD, Ph.D. 



MACALESTER COLLEGE 
ST PAUL. MINNESOTA 



^>9ic 



ALLYN AND BACON 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 

ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO 



/^^A- 
•\\^ 



?.D^ 



COPYRIGHT, 1921 
BY J. C. HAZZARD 



SEP 24 '21 



Wortoooli 33vESB 

J. S. Gushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co, 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



§)CU622979 



PREFACE 

This collection of the poems of Browning was pre- 
pared for high-school students. It is intended to serve 
as an introduction to the poetry of one whose poems 
present difficulties even to scholars. Simplicity has 
therefore been the guiding principle in the selection, the 
arrangement, and the editing of the poems. 

This edition includes all the poems which are on the 
list of the College Entrance Requirements. The order 
of arrangement is that which Browning himself pre- 
ferred in the selection of his poems which he made and 
published before his death. 

The notes are purposely made complete and simple, for 
there is much in Browning which requires interpretation, 
even to pupils of good literary training. 

It is the hope of the editor that the book will be the 
means of interesting students in the poetry of "the man- 
Hest, the strongest, the lifefulest, the deepest and the 
thoughtfulest poet, the one most needing earnest study, 
and the most worthy of it." If such be the case, the 
book will not Jiave been writteij injvain. 

- ^^ J. C. H. 

February, 1921. 



m 



CONTENTS 






PAGE 


Introduction 


vii 


Bibliography 


xviii 


Chronological Table 


. xix 


Text 




My Star 


I 


A Face 


I 


My Last Duchess 


2 


Songs from Pippa Passes 


4 


Eurydice to Orpheus 


5 


"The Moth's Kiss, First!" 


6 


Meeting at Night 


6 


Parting at Morning 


7 


' ' How They B rought the Good News from Ghent to Aix ' 


7 


Incident of the French Camp .... 


9 


The Lost Leader 


II 


Love among the Ruins ..... 


12 


Home-Thoughts, from Abroad .... 


15 


Home-Thoughts, from the Sea .... 


i6 


The Itahan in England ..... 


i6 


Up at a Villa — Down in the City 


21 


The Pied Piper of HameUn 


25 


''De Gustibus— " 


36 


Memorabilia 


37 


Instans Tyrannus 


38 


Tray 


41 


Cavalier Tunes 


42 


Herve Riel ........ 


• 45 



VI 


Contents 


PAGE 


Pheidippides 




. SI 


The Patriot . 




. . 58 


Rabbi Ben Ezra . 




. 59 


Epilogue to AsolanJo 




. 66 


Notes 




. . 69 


Index of Titles . 




. 93 



INTRODUCTION 

BROWNING'S LIFE 

Robert Browning, the third of that name, was born 
in Camberwell, a suburb of London, May 7, 181 2. He 
was the eldest of three children. Robert Browning's 
father, when a young man, had been sent by his father 
to the West Indies, where he held a lucrative position 
on a sugar plantation. But on account of his objections 
to slavery, he gave up his place and returned to Eng- 
land, where he became an official in the Bank of Eng- 
land. 

Although the elder Browning was a successful business 
man, his tastes were aesthetic and literary, and his leisure 
was devoted to the study of classical and modern litera- 
tures. He also had considerable skill as an artist, for he 
drew vigorous pictures and caricatures of the patrons 
of the Bank whom he was supposed to serve. According 
to the statement of his son, he was also a skilled versifier. 
As the father's position gave him a competence, he gener- 
ously permitted his son to choose his life work without 
regard to financial returns. ''He secured for me," says 
the poet, "all the ease and comfort that a literary man 
needs to do good work." 

The poet's mother was Sarah Anne Wiedemann, the 
daughter of a German ship owner settled in Dundee, 
Scotland. She was possessed of a deep piety and an 
artistic nature. "She was," says Carlyle, "the true 

vii 



viii Introduction 

type of a Scottish gentlewoman." The relation between 
mother and son was unusually close. ''A divine woman," 
he called her, and at her death in 1849 he gave way for a 
time to overwhelming sorrow. 

For the most part Browning's education was received 
at home. Camberwell at that time was still rural enough 
to permit him to wander about through woods and open 
country. Here he learned to know nature, and early 
developed that keen faculty of observation which char- 
acterized him throughout his whole life. His love for 
wild animals he seems to have inherited from his mother, 
who encouraged him in his collecting, and he was con- 
stantly bringing home pets of all sorts. 

After he was ten years old he spent some time at a 
private school in the neighborhood. When he was four- 
teen, he first became acquainted with the poems of Shelley 
and Keats. He tells us how he read these poets to the ac- 
companiment of two nightingales in the trees of his 
father's garden. From that time he felt himself conse- 
crated to the high task of writing poetry. He began to 
prepare himself for the work by "sedulous cultivation of 
the powers of his mind" by study at home, and by travel 
abroad. 

For the next four years Browning had private tutors 
at home. He studied music under various masters. To 
strengthen his body he took lessons in dancing, riding, 
boxing, and fencing. He kept up his work in art and 
trained himself further by frequent visits to the museums. 
At eighteen he was matriculated at the University of 
London where he studied for two years. 

In January, 1833, Browning published his first poem 
Pauline, anonymously. In it we find many echoes of 



Introduction ix 

Shelley, especially of Alastor. To certain critics the work 
made a strong appeal, for in spite of its crudities they 
recognized in it the promise of genius. The publication 
of this poem was followed by a period of travel in Russia. 
In 1835 Browning published Paracelsus, the first poem 
to which he attached his name. This is a study of the 
life of the early Renaissance alchemist, mystic, and 
physician Paracelsus. Although the work was coolly 
received and added nothing to Browning's popularity, 
his genius was admitted by a group of critics, and he was 
received into the foremost literary circles of London. 
This was the means of making him acquainted ' with 
such men as Macready, the actor, Dickens, Talfourd, 
Leigh Hunt, Barry Cornwall, Wordsworth, and Landor. 

On one occasion Macready proposed that Browning 
write a play for him. Browning complied with the re- 
quest and produced the pla)y Strafford, a drama founded 
on the tragic career of Thomas Wentworth, the Earl of 
Strafford, the minister of Charles I. The play was pro- 
duced at Covent Garden Theater in 1837. After a brief 
run it w^as withdrawn. 

Browning turned his attention next to the completion 
of a long poem Sordello on which he had been working for 
some time and which he had laid aside for the drama. 
In 1838 he visited Italy that he might see for himself the 
scenes he was describing in his poem. "Italy w^as my 
university," he was accustomed to say. In 1840 Sor- 
dello was published. It did not add to Browning's repu- 
tation. In fact its effect upon his fame as a poet was dis- 
astrous. Many stories are told of the difficulties of 
various persons in trying to read it. The publication of 
this poem, so obscure in parts, marks the beginning of 



X Intrbduction 

what Browning called the period of "prolonged deso- 
lateness," when for twenty years his poems met with al- 
most complete indifference in the land of his birth. 

From 1 84 1 to 1846 he published a series of poems to 
which he gave the somewhat fantastic name of "Bells 
and Pomegranates j'^ a title suggested by a verse in Exodus. 
By this name he intended to indicate "a mixture of music 
with discoursing, sound with sense, poetry with thought." 
Under this title he brought out eight numbers, includ- 
ing Pip pa Passes, 1841, Dramatic Lyrics, 1842, Dramatic 
Romances and Lyrics, 1845, and several of the dramas. 

Of -Browning's dramas it must be said that they never 
have and probably never will achieve popularity as act- 
ing plays. They are too subjective, too analytic. "His 
genius, bent as it was on the interpretation of spiritual 
phenomena, could ill brook the demands of the acted 
drama that all this interpretation should stop with visible, 
intelligible, and satisfactory action, capable of histrionic 
expression. Browning's eager penetration of the arcana 
of life was too absorbing to permit him to call a halt when 
the actor on the stage could go no farther." 

At this time began Browning's courtship of Elizabeth 
Barrett, whose works were beginning to be read widely. 
In 1844 she had published a volume of poems which 
Browning admired greatly. He wrote to her, express- 
ing his appreciation of her work and asking permission to 
call. As Miss Barrett was an invalid, having injured her 
back by a fall from a horse, she at first refused to see 
him. But later through the efforts of John Kenyon 
the two were brought together. 

Almost immediately Browning made her an offer of 
marriage, which she at first declined on account of her 



Introduction xi 

poor health. But Browning's masterful wooing was at 
length rewarded and she consented to marry him. As 
her father opposed her marrying at all, she and Browning 
were secretly married on September 12, 1846, at Maryle- 
bone Church, London. A week after their secret mar- 
riage they started for Italy. Mrs. Browning made many 
vain efforts to placate her obdurate father. He refused 
to see her again and returned her letters unopened. This 
wounded her deeply, for she had devotedly loved him. 

Journeying by slow stages, the Brownings reached 
Florence in April, 1847. In 1848 they found what was 
to be their permanent home, the second floor of the Casa 
Guidi, a shrine ever since consecrated to their memory. 
Here they lived quietly and worked industriously. Both 
of them became intensely interested in the efforts that 
were being made by patriotic Italians to free their native 
land, an interest frequently reflected in the poems of 
both poets. 

On March 9, 1849, their son Wiedemann, later known 
as "Penini" or "Pen" Browning, was born. At about 
this time Browning's mother died. He was a long time 
in recovering from the loss. "He had loved his mother," 
wrote Mrs. Browning, "as such passionate natures can 
love, and I never saw a man so bowed down in an ex- 
tremity of sorrow — never." 

Duiing this long period of his life in Italy Browning 
produced little; especially is this statement true if we 
compare the output with his work during the richly pro- 
ductive period from 1841 to 1846. In 1850 he published 
Christmas Eve and Easter Day^ a long poem in two parts, 
in which he treats of the arguments for Christianity, 
and, five years later, in 1855, Men and Women, a collec- 



xii IntioducLion 

tion of fifty-one poems, a group which has been called 
the flower of his genius. "But though the record is 
meager as to quantity, lovers of Browning's poetry would 
be likely to regard this as not only a central period, 
chronologically, but the period when he reached his 
highest expression." 

It is in this collection that he brought to perfection a 
form of poetry which he uses more uniquely than does 
any other poet, the dramatic monologue. This type 
has the advantage of a dramatic effect without the dra- 
matic form. There is only one speaker, but the effect 
of the speech upon implied listeners is clearly brought 
out. By this means the dramatic effect is obtained. 
Noteworthy also is the great range of these poems. In 
them we find represented all the varied aspects of Flor- 
entine life. 

On June 28, 1861, Mrs. Browning died. Until within 
the last few years before her death her health had greatly 
improved, and in addition to enjoying the social life of 
the city in a limited degree, she w^as able to publish poems 
that attracted more general notice than did the poems of 
her husband. In 1851 she published Casa Guidi Win- 
dows, a collection of poems, and in 1857 her long novel 
in verse, Aurora Leigh. Although her strength had 
been failing for some time, her death was unexpected 
and was a great blow to her loving husband. It brought 
to a close the beautiful and romantic life they had been 
living in Florence and probably affected greatly the 
remainder of Browning's career. 

Almost immediately he left Italy for England and made 
his home in London in a house in Warwick Crescent. 
At first he gave himself up to his sorrow, living a life of 



Introduction xili 

lonelinesSo In 1863 he published a new and complete 
collection of his poetical works in three volumes. In 
1864 appeared a collection called Dramatis Fersonae, 
containing some of his greater poems, such as Rabbi Ben 
Ezra, A Death in the Desert, and Abt Vogler. A recog- 
nition of his growing fame is seen in the demand for 
selections from his work and also in the conferring of 
an honorary degree of M. A. by the University of Ox- 
ford in 1867. Not long afterwards he was made an 
honorary fellow of Balliol College. The University of 
Cambridge conferred upon him the degree of Doctor, of 
Civil Law in 1879 and the University of Oxford gave him 
the same degree in 1882. 

In 1863 he suddenly changed his habits and began to 
accept invitations, entering again into the social life of 
London. After the death of his father in 1866, he and 
his sister Sarianna, who had become his constant com- 
panion, lived together in London, although they fre- 
quently passed their summers in Brittany, Wales, and 
Scotland. Later he took his sister to Italy, although he 
always avoided Florence. 

In 1868 and 1869 Browning published a long work in 
four volumes called The Ring and the Book. This he 
destined to be his magnum opus and on it he had labored 
for many years. During his residence in Florence he 
had picked up at a book-stall an "old yellow Book" 
which contained an account of a tragic story of the seven- 
teenth century. This story he brooded over until he had 
seen it in all its relations to humanity. The poem has a 
novel structure. In it the story of the forced marriage 
of the young girl Pompilia to the Count Guido, her 
rescue from his clutches by the Canon Caponsacchi, 



xiv Introduction 

her murder, the trial of the Count, the arguments of the 
lawyers, and the review of the case by the Pope who 
judged it, all are given. The story is retold ten times 
from all different viewpoints. It is a series of dramatic 
monologues, enlarged to fit the occasion. 

In her commentary on Browning's works Mrs. Orr 
traces the influence of Mrs. Browning in the character 
of Pompilia. This work Browning seems to have intended 
to be a monument to the memory of his dead wife, con- 
secrated to her whom he always regarded as the superior 
poetical genius and whose works he was never tired of 
praising. "The simple truth is," he wrote to a friend, 
"that she was the poet and I the clever person by com- 
parison: remember her limited experience of all kinds, 
and w^hat she made of it. Remember, on the other 
hand, how my uninterrupted health and strength and 
practice with the world have helped me." 

In 1871 he published Balaustion's Adventure, in 1875 
Aristophanes^ Apology, and in 1877 his translation of 
The Agamemnon of Aeschylus. This group of poems repre- 
sents Browning's criticism of Greek art and thought. 
They are the fruits of his prolonged study of Greek poe- 
try, especially of the Greek dramatists. During these 
years, when fame had come to him, and he had been 
honored during his lifetime beyond any other Enghsh 
poet by having a society formed to study and interpret 
his works. Browning led a semi-public life. 

As his biographer Sharp states: "Everybody wished 
him to come and dine ; and he did his utmost to gratify 
everybody. He saw everything; read all the notable 
books; kept himself acquainted with the leading con- 
tents of the journals and magazines.; conducted a large 



Introduction xv 

correspondence ; read new French, German, and Italian 
books of mark; read and translated Euripides and 
Aeschylus ; knew all the gossip of the literar}^ clubs, 
salons, and the studios ; was a frequenter of afternoon 
tea-parties ; and then, over and above it, he was Brown- 
ing : the most profoundly subtle mind that has exer- 
cised itself in poetry since Shakespeare." 

Browning's later works, with the exception, perhaps, 
of the Dramatic Idyls, added but little to his reputation. 
He published The Red Cotton Night-Cap Country in 1873 
and The Inn Album in 1875. These are long narrative 
poems. The next collection of his poems Pacchiarotto 
is marked by obscurities and oddities. The Dramatic 
Idyls, 1879, 1880, however, contain some excellent work. 

Browning's visits to Italy now became more frequent. 
Still he avoided Florence on account of the sad memories 
associated with that city. He revisited Asolo, where he 
had laid the scene of Pippa Passes in his earlier days, and 
here he gathered the last collection of his poems, to 
which he gave the name of Asolando. Browning's son 
had married and had taken up his permanent residence 
at Venice and had bought the old Palazzo Rezzonica. 
Here Browning came and after a brief illness died sud- 
denly on December 12, i88g. By a coincidence Aso- 
lando was published in London on the same day. Brown- 
ing was buiied in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey 
on the last day of the year. As a mark of respect to his 
memory the Italian government placed a tablet on the wall 
of the Palazzo Rezzonica with a suitable inscription which 
closes with these lines from De Gustihus : 

"Open my heart and you will see 
Graved inside of it, 'Italy.'" 



XVI Introduction 

BROWNING'S POETRY 

One of the most impressive facts in Browning's wo-ks 
is the immense variety of subjects with which he deals. 
All ages, all varieties of experience, all periods of the 
world's history are to be found in his pages. Brown- 
ing takes all human life as his province. He proposes 
to understand "God and his works and all God's inter- 
course with the human soul." Nothing in man is too 
insignificant or too remote to l^e included in his pages, 
provided it have its effect on man's soul. 

Browning has been called a romanticist by some critics 
and has been claimed as a realist by the opposite camp. 
Probably both sides are right within limits, for in the 
freedom of choice whicli he displays in selecting his sub- 
jects, Browning is clearly romantic, but in his method of 
treating his chosen subject he is realistic. His choice 
of subject seems to have been determined by the belief 
that individual feeling and motive are the only true life. 
His range of subject covers a great deal that is painful, 
but nothing that is repulsive. His treatment of his sub- 
ject is always picturesque. It raises a distinct image of 
the person or action he intends to describe. 

Browning may be regarded as a romanticist on account 
of his invention or adaptation of a particular form of 
verse for each occasion. As he beHeved that every cir- 
cumstance, every occasion should be expressed by an 
appropriate metrical form, he is constantly experiment- 
ing with new and unusual metrical combinations. In 
his work the metrical form suggests by its rhythm the 
underlying idea of the poem, as for example in ''How 
We Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix," where 



Introduction xvii 

the rhythm suggests the galloping of horses. His verse 
is subordinate to his theory of the poetic art. Always 
it was his principle that sense should not be sacrificed to 
sound. Thought before expression, matter before form, 
are marked characteristics of his work. This effort to 
clothe his subject with a suitable form occasionally led him 
into obscurity, but in most cases the effort was successful. 

Browning's favorite method of treating a subject was 
to examine it through the eyes of some suitable character 
whom he selected or invented for the purpose. This 
involved only a one-sided survey, a survey from only one 
viewpoint. Sometimes this also causes obscurity, for 
the reader forgets that the poet is not trying to give a 
complete account of a certain event but only such a 
partial one as his assumed character might obtain. 

Much has been written about Browning's philosophy 
of life. Although a complete system of philosophy may 
be deduced from his works, Browning was concerned 
rather with man as an individual than with man in the 
abstract. To him each case was a separate study, for he 
read the meaning of life and measured its value from the 
point of view of the individual, not from that of society. 
Action, energy, daring, persistence are the virtures which 
he commends for their own sakes, while their opposites 
he strongly condemns. 

But he does not consider this life as final. We are 
placed here, he thinks, for the purpose of growing enough 
to enable us to take our part in another life beyond this 
one. Here we are surrounded by limitations which baffle 
and retard our growth. Through these limitations come 
failures, which prevent us from being content with our con- 
dition. There is something within us, some divine spark, 



xviii Introduction 

which IS always spurring us on and urging us to endeavor 
to transcend these hmitations and reach out for what is 
beyond. But we must find cut what these limitations 
are and work within them, or life would become nothing 
but vain discontent with our condition. This constant 
battle between our aspirations and our limitations makes 
up the stress of life. ''Thus, the purpose of life is not 
the attainment of any specific end, either selfish or heroic, 
but rather the continued progress of the human spirit in 
its chosen course." 

Browning was an optimist. He believed that no ex- 
perience is wasted, that all life is good in its way. Even 
the so-called "evils of life" are not without some good. 
If we would remedy them, we need more of the good qual- 
ities, the opposite of the evil. Browning's attitude towards 
life cannot be better stated than he himself has expressed 
it in one of the stanzas of his last poem. The Epilogue to 
Asolando, where he says that he is — 

" One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, 
Never doubted clouds would break, 

Never dreamed, tho' right were worsted, wrong would triumph, 
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, 
Sleep to wake." 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

For complete bibliography, see the Bibliography of Biography 
and Criticism by J. P. Anderson printed in the Life of Robert Brown- 
ing by William Sharp. 
The Complete Works of Robert Browning, 17 vols., ed. A. Birrell and 

F. G. Kenyon. Smith, Elder & Company. 
Complete Works, 12 vols., ed. Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke. 
The Complete Poetic and Dramatic Works of Robert Browning, Cam- 
bridge Edition, i vol., ed. H. E. Scudder. 
The Browning Cyclopcsdia. Edward Berdoe. 



Introduction ' xix 

The Poetry of Robert Browning. Stopford Brooke. 

An Introduction to the Study of Robert Browning's Poetry. Hiram 

Corson. 
The Life of Robert Browning. Temple Biographies. Reprinted 

in Everyman's Library. Edward Dowden. 
Critical Kit-Kats. Edmund W. Gosse. 

Robert Browning. Modern English Writers. C. H. Herford. 
Browning as a Philosophical and Religious Teacher. Sir Henry Jones. 
A Handbook to the Works of Robert Browning. Mrs. S. Orr. 
Life and Letters of Robert Browning. Mrs. S. Orr and Sir F. G. Kenyon. 
Browning: How to Know Him. William Lyon Phelps. 
Life of Robert Browning. William Sharp. (The standard biography.) 
An Introduction to the Study of Browning. Arthur Symons. 
The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett. Two volumes. 

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 

March 6, 1806. Elizabeth Barrett born at Coxhoe, county of 

Durham. 
May 7, 181 2. Robert Browning born in Camberwell, London. 

1825. Browning read Shelley and Keats. 

1826. Browning left Mr. Ready's school. 

1827. Alfred and Charles Tennyson : Poems by Two 

Brothers. 
1830, hXixedTtnny son: Poems, chiefly Lyrical. 
1833. Browning : Pauline, published anonymously. 

Tennyson : Poems. 
1833-1834. Browning travelled in Russia and Italy. 
1835. Browning : Paracelsus. 
1837. Browning: Strafford. Acted May i at Covent 

Garden Theater. 

1840. Browning : Sordello. 

1841. Browning: Pippa Passes. 

1842. Browning: Dramatic Lyrics. 
Tennyson : Poems. 

1843. Browning : A Blot in the ^Scutcheon. 

1844. Elizabeth Barrett : Poems. 
Browning : Colombe's Birthday. 



XX 



Introduction 



Jan. lo, 1845. Correspondence between Robert Browning and 

Elizabeth Barrett begun. 
May 20, Their first meeting. 

Browning : Dramatic Romances and Lyrics. 
Sept. 12, 1846. Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett married 

at Marylebone Church, London. 
Oct., 1846 to April, 1847. In Pisa. 
April 20, 1847. Took up their residence at Florence. 
March 9, 1849. Birth of Wiedemann Browning. 
March Browning's mother died. 

1850. Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Sonnets from the 

Portuguese. 

1850. Browning : Christmas Eve and Easter Day. 
Tennyson : In Memoriam. 

185 1. Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Casa Guidi Windows. 
1855. Browning : Men and Women. 

1857. Elizabeth Barrett Browning : Aurora Leigh. 
June i860. Browning found the "Yellow Book." 

June 29, 1 86 1. Elizabeth Barrett Browning died. 
July Browning left Florence and resided in London. 



1864. 
1868. 
1871. 

1872. 
1873. 
1875. 

1876. 

1877. 

1878. 

1879. 



1880. 
1883. 
1884. 



Browning : Dramatis Personae. 

Browning : The Ring and the Book, finished 1869. 

Browning: Balaustion's Adventure. 

Browning : Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau. 

Browning : Fifine at the Fair. 

Browning : Red Cotton Night-Cap Country. 

Browning : Aristophanes' Apology. 

Browning : The Inn Album. 

Browning : Pacchiarotto and How He Worked in 

Distemper. 
Browning : The Agamemnon of Aeschylus translated. 
Browning : La Saisiaz; The Two Poets of Croisic. 
Browning revisits Italy for the first time after his 

wife's death. 
Browning : Dramatic Idyls, First Series. 
Browning : Dramatic Idyls, Second Series. 
Browning : Jocoseria. 
Browning : Ferishtah's Fancies. 



Introduction xxi 

Dec. 12, 1889. Browning: Asnlando. 

Dec. 12, Robert Browning died in the Palazzo Rezzonica 

in Venice. 
Dec. 31. Buried in Westminster Abbey, 



BROWNING'S POEMS 

MY STAR 

All that I know 

Of a certain star 
Is, it can throw 

(Like the angled spar) 
Now a dart of red, 5 

Now a dart of blue ; 
Till my friends have said 
They would fain see, too, 
My star that dartles the red and the blue ! 
Then it stops like a bird ; like a flower, hangs furled : 10 
They must solace themselves with the Saturn above it. 
What matter to me if their star is a world ? 

Mine has opened its soul to me ; therefore I love it. 

A FACE 

If one could have that little head of hers 

Painted upon a background of pale gold, 
Such as the Tuscan's early art prefers ! 

No shade encroaching on the matchless mould 
Of those two lips, which should be opening soft 5 

In the pure profile ; not as when she laughs. 
For that spoils all : but rather as if aloft 

Yon hyacinth, she loves so, leaned its staff's 
Burthen of honey-coloured buds to kiss 
And capture 'twixt the lips apart for this. 10 



2 Browning's Poems 

Then her lithe neck, three fingers might surround, 
How it should waver on the pale gold ground 
Up to the fruit-shaped, perfect chin it lifts ! 
I know, Correggio loves to mass, in rifts 
Of heaven, his angel faces, orb on orb is 

Breaking its outline, burning shades absorb : 
But these are only massed there, I should think, 
Waiting to see some wonder momently 
Grow out, stand full, fade slow against the sky 
(That's the pale ground you'd see this sweet face by) , 20 
All heaven, meanwhile, condensed into one eye 
Which fears to lose the wonder, should it wink. 

MY LAST DUCHESS 

FERRARA 

That's my last Duchess painted on the wall. 

Looking as if she were alive. I call 

That piece a wonder, now : Fra Pandolf 's hands 

Worked busily a day, and there she stands. 

Will't please you sit and look at her? I said s 

" Fra Pandolf " by design, for never read 

Strangers like you that pictured countenance, 

The depth and passion of its earnest glance, 

But to myself they turned (since none puts by 

The curtain I have drawn for you, but I) 10 

And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst. 

How such a glance came there ; so, not the first 

Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas not 

Her husband's presence only, called that spot 

Of joy into the Duchess' cheek : perhaps 15 

Fra PandoK chanced to say " Her mantle laps 



My Last Duchess 3 

Over my lady's wrist too much," or " Paint 

Must never hope to reproduce the faint 

Half -flush that dies along her throat : " such stuff 

Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough 20 

For calling up that spot of joy. She had 

A heart — how shall I say ? — too soon made glad, 

Too easily impressed ; she liked whate'er 

She looked on, and her looks went everywhere. 

Sir, 'twas all one ! My favour at her breast, 25 

The dropping of the daylight in the West, 

The bough of cherries some ofl&cious fool 

Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule 

She rode with round the terrace — all and each 

Would draw from her alike the approving speech, 30 

Or blush, at least. She thanked men, — good ! but thanked 

Somehow — I know not how — as if she ranked 

My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name 

With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame 

This sort of trifling ? Even had you skill 35 

In speech — (which I have not) — to make your will 

Quite clear to such an one, and say, " Just this 

Or that in you disgusts me ; here you miss, 

Or there exceed the mark " — and if she let 

Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set 40 

Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse, 

— E'en then would be some stooping ; and I choose 

Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt. 

Whene'er I passed her ; but who passed without 

Much the same smile? This grew ; I gave commands ; 45 

Then all smfles stopped together. There she stands 

As if alive. Will't please you rise? We'll meet 

The company below, then. I repeat. 



4 Browning's Poems 

The Count your master's known munificence 

Is ample warrant that no just pretence so 

Of mine for dowry will be disallowed ; 

Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed 

At starting, is my object. Nay, we'll go 

Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though, 

Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity, 55 

Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me ! 



SONGS FROM PIPPA PASSES 

I 

The year's at the spring 

And day's at the morn ; 

Morning's at seven ; 

The hill-side's dew-pearled ; 

The lark's on the wing ; 5 

The snail's on the thorn : 

God's in his heaven — 

All's right with the world ! 

II 

Give her but a least excuse to love me ! 

When — where — 10 

How ' — can this arm establish her above me, 

If fortune fixed her as my lady there, 

There already, to eternally reprove me? 

(" Hist ! " — said Kate the Queen ; 

But " Oh ! " — cried the maiden, binding her tresses, 15 

" 'Tis only a page that carols unseen. 

Crumbling your hounds their messes ! ") 



Eurydice to Orpheus 5 

Is she wronged ? — To the rescue of her honour, 

My heart ! 

Is she poor ? — What costs it to be styled a donor ? 20 

Merely an earth to cleave, a sea to part. 

But that fortune should have thrust all this upon her ! 

{" Nay, list ! " — bade Kate the Queen ; 

And still cried the maiden, binding her tresses, 

" 'Tis only a page that carols unseen 25 

Fitting your hawks their jesses ! ") 

III 

You'll love me yet ! — and I can tarry 

Your love's protracted growing : 
June reared that bunch of flowers you carry, 

From seeds of April's sowing. 30 

I plant a heartful now : some seed 

At least is sure to strike. 
And yield — what you'll not pluck indeed, 

Not love, but, may be, like. 

You'll look at least on love's remains, ss 

A grave's one violet : 
Your look ? — that pays a thousand pains. 

What's death ? You'll love me yet ! 

EURYDICE TO ORPHEUS 

A PICTURE BY LEIGHTON 

But give them me, the mouth, the eyes, the brow ! 
Let them once more absorb me ! One look now 

Will lap me round forever, not to pass 
Out of its light, though darkness He beyond : 



Browning's Poems 



Hold me but safe again within the bond 

Of one immortal look ! All woe that was, 
Forgotten, and all terror that may be. 
Defied, — no past is mine, no future : look at me 



"THE MOTH'S KISS, FIRST!" 

The moth's kiss, first ! 

Kiss me as if you made believe 

You were not sure, this eve, 

How my face, your flower, had pursed 

Its petals up ; so, here and there 

You brush it, till I grow aware 

Who wants me, and wide ope I burst. 

The bee's kiss, now ! 
Kiss me as if you entered gay 
My heart at some noonday, 
A bud that dares not disallow 
The claim, so all is rendered up, 
And passively its shattered cup 
Over your head to sleep I bow. 



MEETING AT NIGHT 

The gray sea and the long black land ; 
And the yellow half -moon large and low ; 
And the startled httle waves that leap 
In fiery ringlets from their sleep. 
As I gain the cove with pushing prow, 
And quench its speed i' the slushy sand. 



The Good News from Ghent to Aix 7 

Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach ; 

Three fields to cross till a farm appears ; 

A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch 

And blue spurt of a lighted match, 10 

And a voice less loud, thro' its joys and fears, 

Than the two hearts beating each to each ! 

PARTING AT MORNING 

Round the cape of a sudden came the sea. 
And the sun looked over the mountain's rim ; 
And straight was a path of gold for him, is 

And the need of a world of men for me. 

"HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS 
FROM GHENT TO AIX" 

I SPRANG to the stirrup, and Joris, and he ; 

I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three ; 

" Good speed !" cried the watch, as the gatebolts undrew ; 

'' Speed !" echoed the wall to us galloping through ; 

Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest, 5 

And into the midnight we galloped abreast. 

Not a word to each other ; we kept the great pace 

Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place; 

I turned in my saddle and made its girths tight. 

Then shortened each stirrup, and set the pique right, 10 

Rebuckled the cheek-strap, chained slacker the bit, 

Nor galloped less steadily Roland a whit. 

'Twas moonset at starting ; but while we drew near 
Lokeren, the cocks crew and twilight dawned clear ; 



8 Browning's Poems 

At Boom, a great yellow star came out to see ; is 

At Diiffeld, 'twas morning as plain as could be ; 
And from Mecheln church-steeple we heard the half -chime, 
So, Joris broke silence with, " Yet there is time !" 

At Aershot, up leaped of a sudden the sun, 

And against him the cattle stood black every one, 20 

To stare thro' the mist at us galloping past. 

And I saw my stout galloper Roland at last. 

With resolute shoulders, each butting away 

The haze, as some bluff river headland its spray : 

And his low head and crest, just one sharp ear bent back 25 
For my voice, and the other pricked out on his track ; 
And one eye's black intelligence, — ever that glance 
O'er its white edge at me, his own master, askance ! 
And the thick heavy spum-flakes which aye and anon 
His fierce lips shook upwards in galloping on. 30 

By Hasselt, Dirck groaned ; and cried Joris, " Stay spur ! 
Your Roos galloped bravely, the fault's not in her, 
We'll remember at Aix " — for one heard the quick wheeze 
Of her chest, saw the stretched neck and staggering knees. 
And sunk tail, and horrible heave of the flank, - 35 

As down on her haunches she shuddered and sank. 

So, we were left galloping, Joris and I, 

Past Looz and past Tongres, no cloud in the sky ; 

The broad sun above laughed a pitiless laugh, 

'Neath our feet broke the brittle bright stubble like chaff ; 40 

Till over by Dalhem a dome-spire sprang white. 

And " Gallop," gasped Joris, '' for Aix is in sight ! " 



Incident of the French Camp 9 

'' How they'll greet us ! " — and all in a moment his roan 
Rolled neck and croup over, lay dead as a stone ; 
And there was my Roland to bear the whole weight 45 
Of the news which alone could save Aix from her fate, 
With his nostrils like pits full of blood to the brim. 
And with circles of red for his eye-sockets' rim. 

Then I cast loose my buff coat, each holster let fall, 
Shook off both my jack-boots, let go belt and all, 50 

Stood up in the stirrup, leaned, patted his ear. 
Called my Roland his pet-name, my horse without peer ; 
Clapped my hands, laughed and sang, any noise, bad or 

good. 
Till at length into Aix Roland galloped and stood. 

And all I remember is — friends flocking round 55 

As I sat with his head 'twixt my knees on the ground ; 
And no voice but was praising this Roland of mine, 
As I poured down his throat our last measure of wine. 
Which (the burgesses voted by common consent) 
Was no more than his due who brought good news from 
Ghent. 60 

INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH CAMP 

You know, we French stormed Ratisbon : 

A mile or so away. 
On a little mound. Napoleon 

Stood on our storming-day ; 
With neck out-thrust, you fancy how, 5 

Legs wide, arms locked behind. 
As if to balance the prone brow 

Oppressive with its mind. 



lo Browning's Poems 

Just as perhaps he mused " My plans 

That soar, to earth may fall, lo 

Let once my army-leader Lannes 

Waver at yonder wall," — 
Out 'twixt the battery-smokes there flew 

A rider, bound on bound 
Full-galloping ; nor bridle drew 15 

Until he reached the mound. 

Then off there flung in smihng joy, 

And held himself erect 
By just his horse's mane, a boy : 

You hardly could suspect — 20 

(So tight he kept his lips compressed, 

Scarce any blood came through) 
You looked twice ere you saw his breast 

Was all but shot in two. 

'* Well," cried he, " Emperor, by God's grace 25 

We've got you Ratisbon ! 
The Marshal's in the market-place. 

And you'll be there anon 
To see your flag-bird flap his vans 

Where I, to heart's desire, 30 

Perched him ! " The chief's eye flashed ; his plans 

Soared up again like fire. 

The chief's eye flashed ; but presently 

Softened itself, as sheathes 
A film the mother-eagle's eye 35 

When her bruised eaglet breathes ; 



The Lost Leader ii 

" You're wounded ! " " Nay," the soldier's pride 

Touched to the quick, he said : 
" I'm killed. Sire ! " And his chief beside 

Smiling the boy fell dead. 40 

THE LOST LEADER 

Just for a handful of silver he left us, 

Just for a riband to stick in his coat — 
Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us, 

Lost all the others she lets us devote ; 
They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver, s 

So much was theirs who so little allowed : 
How all our copper had gone for his service ! 

Rags — were they purple, his heart had been proud ! 
We that had loved him so, followed him, honoured him, 

Lived in his mild and magnificent eye, 10 

Learned his great language, caught his clear accents, 

Made him our pattern to live and to die ! 
Shakespeare was of us, Milton was for us, 

Burns, Shelley, were with us, — they watch from their 
graves ! 
He alone breaks from the van and the freemen, is 

— He alone sinks to the rear and the slaves ! 

We shall march prospering, — not thro' his presence ; 

Songs may inspirit us, — not from his lyre ; 
Deeds will be done, — while he boasts his quiescence, 

Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire : 20 

Blot out his name, then, record one lost soul more, 

One task more declined, one more footpath untrod, 
One more devils'-triumph and sorrow for angels. 

One wrong more to man, one more insult to God I 



12 Browning's Poems 

Life's night begins : let him never come back to us ! 25 

There would be doubt, hesitation and pain, 
Forced praise on our part — the glimmer of twilight, 

Never glad confident morning again ! 
Best fight on well, for we taught him — strike gallantly, 

Menace our heart ere we master his own ; 30 

Then let him receive the new knowledge and wait us, 

Pardoned in heaven, the first by the throne ! 



LOVE AMONG THE RUINS 

Where the quiet-coloured end of evening smiles, 

Miles and miles 
On the solitary pastures where our sheep 

Half -asleep 
Tinkle homeward thro' the twihght, stray or stop s 

As they crop — 
Was the site once of a city great and gay, 

(So they say) 
Of our country's very capital, its prince 

Ages since 10 

Held his court in, gathered councils, wielding far 

Peace or war. 

Now, — the country does not even boast a tree, 

As you see. 
To distinguish slopes of verdure, certain rills is 

From the hills 
Intersect and give a name to, (else they rlin 

Into one) 
Where the domed and daring palace shot its spires 

Up like fires 20 



Love Among the Ruins 13 

O'er the hundred-gated circuit of a wall 

Bounding all, 
Made of marble, men might march on nor be pressed, 

Twelve abreast. 

And such plenty and perfection, see, of grass 25 

Never was ! 
Such a carpet as, this summer-time, o'erspreads 

And embeds 
Every vestige of the city, guessed alone. 

Stock or stone — 30 

Where a multitude of men breathed joy and woe 

Long ago ; 
Lust of glory pricked their hearts up, dread of shame 

Struck them tame ; 
And that glory and that shame alike, the gold 35 

Bought and sold. 

Now, — the single little turret that remains 

On the plains, 
By the caper overrooted, by the gourd 

Overscored, 40 

While the patching houseleek's head of blossom winks 

Through the chinks — 
Marks the basement whence a tower in ancient time 

Sprang sublime, 
And a burning ring, all round, the chariots traced 45 

As they raced, 
And the monarch and his minions and his dames 

Viewed the games. 

And I know, while thus the quiet-coloured eve 

Smiles to leave so 



14 Browning's Poems 

To their folding, all our many-tinkling fleece 

In such peace, 
And the slopes and rills in undistinguished gray 

Melt away — 
That a girl with eager eyes and yellow hair S5 

Waits me there 
In the turret whence the charioteers caught soul 

For the goal, 
When the king looked, where she looks now, breath- 
less, dumb 

Till I come. 60 

But he looked upon the city, every side, 

Far and wide. 
All the mountains topped with temples, all the 
glades' 

Colonnades, 
All the causeys, bridges, aqueducts, — and then, 65 

All the men ! 
When I do come, she will speak not, she will stand, 

Either hand 
On my shoulder, give her eyes the first embrace 

Of my face, 7° 

Ere we rush, ere we extinguish sight and speech 

Each on each. 

In one year they sent a million fighters forth 

South and North, 
And they built their gods a brazen pillar high 75 

As the sky. 
Yet reserved a thousand chariots in full force — 

Gold, of course. 



Home-thoughts, from Abroad 15 

Oh heart ! oh blood that freezes, blood that burns ! 

Earth's returns 80 

For whole centuries of folly, noise and sin ! 

Shut them in. 
With their triumphs and their glories and the rest ! 

Love is best. 



HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD 

Oh, to be in England 

Now that April's there, 

And whoever wakes in England 

Sees, some morning, unaware, 

That the lowest boughs and. the brushwood sheaf 5 

Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf. 

While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough 

In England — now ! 

And after April, when May follows, 

And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows ! 10 

Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge 

Leans to the field and scatters on the clover 

Blossoms and dewdrops — at the bent spray's edge — 

That's the wise thrush ; he sings each song twice over, 

Lest you should think he never could recapture is 

The first fine careless rapture ! 

And though the fields look rough with hoary dew. 

All will be gay when noontide wakes anew 

The buttercups, the little children's dower 

— Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower ! 20 



i6 Browning's Poems 

HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM THE SEA 

Nobly, nobly Cape Saint Vincent to the North-west 

died away ; 
Sunset ran, one glorious blood-red, reeking into Cadiz 

Bay; 
Bluish 'mid the burning water, full in face Trafalgar lay ; 
In the dimmest North-east distance dawned Gibraltar 

grand and gray ; 
*' Here and here did England help me : how can I help 

England?" — say, s 

Whoso turns as I, this evening, turn to God to praise and 

pray, 
While Jove's planet rises yonder, silent over Africa. 



THE ITALIAN IN ENGLAND 

That second time they hunted me 

From hill to plain, from shore to sea. 

And Austria, hounding far and wide 

Her blood-hounds through the country-side, 

Breathed hot and instant on my trace, — 

I made six days a hiding-place 

Of that dry green old aqueduct 

Where I and Charles, when boys, have plucked 

The fire-flies from the roof above. 

Bright creeping through the moss they love : 

— How long it seems since Charles was lost ! 

Six days the soldiers crossed and crossed 

The country in my very sight ; 

And when that peril ceased at night, 



The Italian in England 17 

The sky broke out in red dismay 15 

With signal fires ; well, there I lay 

Close covered o'er in my recess, 

Up to the neck in ferns and cress. 

Thinking on Metternich our friend, 

And Charles's miserable end, 20 

And much beside, two days ; the third, 

Hunger o'ercame me when I heard 

The peasants from the village go 

To work among the maize ; you know, 

With us in Lombardy, they bring 25 

Provisions packed on mules, a string 

With little bells that cheer their task. 

And casks, and boughs on every cask 

To keep the sun's heat from the wine ; 

These I let pass in jingling line, 30 

And, close on them, dear noisy crew, 

The peasants from the village, too ; 

For at the very rear would troop 

Their wives and sisters in a group 

To help, I knew. When these had passed, 35 

I threw my glove to strike the last. 

Taking the chance : she did not start. 

Much less cry out, but stooped apart, 

One instant rapidly glanced round, 

And saw me beckon from the ground ; 40 

A wild bush grows and hides my crypt ; 

She picked my glove up while she stripped 

A branch off, then rejoined the rest 

With that ; my glove lay in her breast. 

Then I drew breath : they disappeared : 45 

It was for Italy I feared. 



1 8 Browning's Poems 

An hour, and she returned alone 
Exactly where my glove was thrown. 
Meanwhile came many thoughts ; on me 
Rested the hopes of Italy ; 50 

I had devised a certain tale 
, Which, when 'twas told her, could not fail 
Persuade a peasant of its truth ; 
I meant to call a freak of youth 

This hiding, and give hopes of pay, 55 

And no temptation to betray. 
But when I saw that woman's face, 
Its calm simplicity of grace. 
Our Italy's own attitude 

In which she walked thus far, and stood, 60 

Planting each naked foot so firm. 
To crush the snake and spare the worm — 
At first sight of her eyes, I said, 
'' I am that man upon whose head 
They fix the price, because I hate 65 

The Austrians over us : the State 
Will give you gold — oh, gold so much ! — 
If you betray me to their clutch. 
And be your death, for aught I know. 
If once they find you saved their foe. 70 

Now, you must bring me food and drink, 
And also paper, pen, and ink. 
And carry safe what I shall write 
To Padua, which you'll reach at night 
Before the duomo shuts ; go in, 75 

And wait till Tenebrae begin ; 
Walk to the third confessional. 
Between the pillar and the wall, 



The Italian In England 19 

And kneeling whisper, Whence comes peace f 

Say it a second time, then cease ; 80 

And if the voice inside returns, 

From Christ and Freedom; what concerns 

The cause of Peace? — for answer, slip 

My letter where you placed your lip ; 

Then come back happy we have done 8s 

Our mother service — I, the son. 

As you the daughter of our land ! " 

Three mornings more, she took her stand 
In the same place, with the same eyes : 
I was no surer of sunrise go 

Than of her coming. We conferred 
Of her own prospects, and I heard 
She had a lover — stout and tall, 
She said — then let her eyelids fall, 
" He could do much" — as if some doubt 95 

Entered her heart, — then, passing out, 
" She could not speak for others, who 
Had other thoughts ; herself she knew : " 
And so she brought me drink and food. 
After four days, the scouts pursued 10c 

Another path ; at last arrived 
The help my Paduan friends contrived 
To furnish me : she brought the news. 
For the first time I could not choose 
But kiss her hand, and lay my own 105 

Upon her head — " This faith was shown 
To Italy, our mother ; she 
Uses my hand and blesses thee." 
She followed down to the sea-shore ; 
I left and never saw her more. no 



20 Browning's Poems 

How very long since I have thought 
Concerning — much less wished for — aught 
Beside the good of Italy, 
For which I live and mean to die ! 
I never was in love ; and since 115 

Charles proved false, what shall now convince 
My inmost heart I have a friend ? 
However, if I pleased to spend 
Real wishes on myself — say, three — 
I know at least what one should be. 120 

I would grasp Metternich until 
I felt his red wet throat distil 
In blood through these two hands. And next 

— Nor much for that am I perplexed — 

Charles, perjured traitor, for his part, 125 

Should die slow of a broken heart 
Under his new employers. Last 

— Ah, there, what should I wish ? For fast 
Do I grow old and out of strength. 

If I resolved to seek at length 130 

My father's house again, how scared 
They all would look, and unprepared ! 
My brothers live in Austria's pay 

— Disowned me long ago, men say ; 

And all my early mates who used 13s 

To praise me so — perhaps induced 

More than one early step of mine — 

Are turning wise : while some opine 

" Freedom grows license," some suspect 

" Haste breeds delay," and recollect 140 

They always said, such premature 

Beginnings never could endure ! 



Up at a Villa — Down In the City 21 

So, with a sullen '' All's for best," 

The land seems settling to its rest. 

I thiak then, I should wish to stand 14s 

This evening in that dear, lost land. 

Over the sea the thousand miles. 

And know if yet that woman smiles 

With the calm smile ; some little farm 

She lives in there, no doubt : what harm 150 

If I sat on the door-side bench. 

And, while her spindle made a trench 

Fantastically in the dust. 

Inquired of all her fortunes — just 

Her children's ages and their names, 15s 

And what may be the husband's aims 

For each of them. I'd talk this out, 

And sit there, for an hour about, 

Then kiss her hand once more, and lay 

Mine on her head, and go my way. 160 

So much for idle wishing — how 
It steals the time ! To business now. 



UP AT A VILLA — DOWN IN THE CITY 

(as distinguished by an ITALIAN PERSON OF 

quality) 

Had I but plenty of money, money enough and to spare, 
The house for me, no doubt, were a house in the city- 
square ; 
Ah, such a life, such a Hfe, as one leads at the window 
there ! 



22 Browning's Poems 

Something to see, by Bacchus, something to hear, at 

least ! 
There, the whole day long, one's life is a perfect feast ; s 
While up at a villa one lives, I maintain it, no more than 

a beast. 

Well now, look at our villa ! stuck like the horn of a bull 
Just on a mountain-edge as bare as the creature's skull. 
Save a mere shag of a bush with hardly a leaf to pull ! 
— I scratch my own, sometimes, to see if the hair's 
turned wool. lo 

But the city, oh the city — the square with the houses ! 

Why? 
They are stone-faced, white as a curd, there's something 

to take the eye ! 
Houses in four straight lines, not a single front awry ; 
You watch who crosses and gossips, who saunters, who 

hurries by ; 
Green blinds, as a matter of course, to draw when the sun 

gets high ; is 

And the shops with fanciful signs which are painted 

properly. 

What of a villa? Though winter be over in March by 

rights, 
'Tis May perhaps ere the snow shall have withered well 

off the heights : 
You've the brown ploughed land before, where the oxen 

steam and wheeze. 
And the hills over-smoked behind by the faint gray 

olive-trees. 20 



up at a Villa — Down in the City 23 

Is it better in May, I ask you ? You've summer all at once ; 
In a day he leaps complete with a few strong April suns. 
'Mid the sharp short emerald wheat, scarce risen three 

fingers well, 
The wild tulip, at end of its tube, blows out its great red 

bell 
Like a thin clear bubble of blood, for the children to pick 

and sell. 25 

Is it ever hot in the square ? There's a fountain to spout 

and splash ! 
In the shade it sings and springs ; in the shine such foam- 
bows flash 
On the horses with curling fish-tails, that prance and 

paddle and pash 
Round the lady atop in her conch — fifty gazers do not 

abash. 
Though all that she wears is some weeds round her waist 

in a sort of sash. 30 

All the year long at the villa, nothing to see though you 
linger. 

Except yon cypress that points like death's lean lifted fore- 
finger. 

Some think fireflies pretty, when they mix i' the corn and 
mingle, 

Or thrid the stinking hemp till the stalks of it seem a-tingle. 

Late August or early September, the stunning cicala is 
shrifl, 35 

And the bees keep their tiresome whine round the resinous 
firs on the hill. 

Enough of the seasons, — I spare you the months of the 
fever and chiU. 



24 Browning's Poems 

Ere you open your eyes in the city, the blessed church-bells 

begin : 
No sooner the bells leave off than the diligence rattles in : 
You get the pick of the news, and it costs you never a 

pin. 40 

By-and-by there's the travelling doctor gives pills, lets 

blood, draws teeth ; 
Or the Pulcinello-trumpet breaks up the market beneath. 
At the post-office such a scene-picture — the new play, 

piping hot ! 
And a notice how, only this morning, three liberal thieves 

were shot. 
Above it, behold the Archbishop's most fatherly of 

rebukes, 4S 

And beneath with his crown and his lion, some little new 

law of the Duke's ! 
Or a sonnet with flowery marge, to the Reverend Don So- 
and-so 
Who is Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarca, Saint Jerome and 

Cicero, 
*' And moreover," (the sonnet goes rhyming,) " the skirts 

of Saint Paul has reached. 
Having preached us those six Lent-lectures more unctu- 
ous than ever he preached." 50 
Noon strikes, — here sweeps the procession ! our Lady 

borne smiling and smart 
With a pink gauze gown all spangles, and seven swords 

stuck in her heart ! 
Bang-whang-whang goes the drum, tootle-te-tootle the 

fife; 
No keeping one's haunches still : it's the greatest pleasure 

in life. 



The Pied Piper of Hamelin 25 

But bless you, it's dear — it's dear! fowls, wine, at 

double the rate. 5s 

They have clapped a new tax upon salt, and what oil pays 

passing the gate 
It's a horror to think of. And so, the villa for me, not the 

city ! 
Beggars can scarcely be choosers : but still — ah, the pity, 

the pity ! 
Look, tw^o and two go the priests, then the monks with 

cowls and sandals. 
And the penitents dressed in white shirts, a-holding 

the yellow candles ; 60 

One, he carries a flag up straight, and another a cross with 

handles, 
And the Duke's guard brings up the rear, for the better 

prevention of scandals : 
Bang-whang-whang goes the drum, tootle-te-tootle the fife. 
Oh, a day in the city-square, there is no such pleasure in 

in life ! 

THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN 

A child's story 

I 
Hamelin Town's in Brunswick, 

By famous Hanover city ; 
The river Weser, deep and wide, 
Washes its wall on the southern side ; 
A pleasanter spot you never spied ; 5 

But, when begins my ditty. 
Almost five hundred years ago, 
To see the townsfolk suffer so 

From vermin, was a pity. 



26 Browning's Poems 

II 
Rats ! lo 

They fought the dogs and killed the cats, 

And bit the babies in the cradles, 
And ate the cheeses out of the vats, 

And licked the soup from the cooks' own ladles, 
Split open the kegs of salted sprats, 15 

Made nests inside men's Sunday hats. 
And even spoiled the women's chats 
By drowning their speaking 
With shrieking and squeaking 
In fifty different sharps and fiats. 20 

III 

At last the people in a body 

To the Town Hall came flocking. 
*' 'Tis clear," cried they, " our Mayor's a noddy; 
And as for our Corporation — shocking 
To think we buy gowns lined with ermine 25 

For dolts that can't or won't determine 
What's best to rid us of our vermin ! 
You hope, because you're old and obese. 
To find in the furry civic robe ease ? 

Rouse up, sirs ! Give your brains a racking 30 

To find the remedy we're lacking, 
Or, sure as fate, we'll send you packing ! " 
At this the Mayor and Corporation 
Quaked with a mighty consternation. 

IV 

An hour they sat in council, 35 

At length the Mayor broke silence : 



The Pied Piper of Hamelin 27 

" For a guilder I'd my ermine gown sell, 

I wish I were a mile hence ! 
It's easy to bid one rack one's brain — 
I'm sure my poor head aches again, 40 

I've scratched it so, and all in vain. 
Oh for a trap, a trap, a trap ! " 
Just as he said this, what should hap 
At the chamber door but a gentle tap ? 
" Bless us,'^ cried the Mayor, " what's that? " 4S 

(With the Corporation as he sat, 
Looking little though wondrous fat ; 
Nor brighter was his eye, nor moister 
Than a too-long-opened oyster. 

Save when at noon his paunch grew mutinous 50 

For a plate of turtle green and glutinous) 
'' Only a scraping of shoes on the mat? 
Anything like the sound of a rat 
Makes my heart go pit-a-pat ! " 

V 

" Come in ! " — the Mayor cried, looking bigger : 55 

And in did come the strangest figure ! 

His queer long coat from heel to head 

Was half of yellow and half of red, 

And he himself was tall and thin, 

With sharp blue eyes, each like a pin, 60 

And light loose hair, yet swarthy skin. 

No tuft on cheek nor beard on chin, 

But lips where smiles went out and in ; 

There was no guessing his kith and kin : 

And nobody could enough admire 65 

The tall man and his quaint attire. 



28 Browning's Poems 

Quoth one : " It's as my great-grandsire, 

Starting up at the Trump of Doom's tone, 

Had walked this way from his painted tombstone ! " 



VI 

He advanced to the council-table : 70 

And, '' Please your honours," said he, " I'm able, 
By means of a secret charm, to draw ' 

All creatures living beneath the sun, 

That creep or swim or fly or run, 
After me so as you never saw ! 75 

And I chiefly use my charm 
On creatures that do people harm. 
The mole and toad and newt and viper ; 
And people call me the Pied Piper." 
(And here they noticed round his neck 80 

A scarf of red and yellow stripe. 
To match with his coat of the self-same cheque ; 

And at the scarf's end hung a pipe ; 
And his fingers, they noticed, were ever straying 
As if impatient to be playing 85 

Upon this pipe, as low it dangled 
Over his vesture so old-fangled.) 
" Yet," said he, " poor piper as I am, 
In Tartary I freed the Cham, 

Last June, from his huge swarms of gnats ; 90 

I eased in Asia the Nizam 

Of a monstrous brood of vampire-bats : 
And as for what your brain bewilders. 

If I can rid your town of rats 
Will you give me a thousand guilders? " 9S 



The Pied Piper of Hamelin 29 

" One? fifty thousand ! " — was the exclamation 
Of the astonished Mayor and Corporation. 

VII 

Into the street the Piper stept, 

Smihng first a httle smile, 
As if he knew what magic slept 100 

In his quiet pipe the while ; 
Then, like a musical adept. 
To blow the pipe his lips he wrinkled, 
And green and blue his sharp eyes twinkled, 
Like a candle-flame where salt is sprinkled ; 105 

And ere three shrill notes the pipe uttered, 
You heard as if an army muttered ; 
And the muttering grew to a grumbling ; 
And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling ; 
And out of the houses the rats came tumbling. no 

Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats, 
Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats, 
Grave old plodders, gay young friskers, 

Fathers, mothers, uncles, cousins. 
Cocking tails and pricking whiskers, us 

Families by tens and dozens. 
Brothers, sisters, husbands, wives — 
Followed the Piper for their lives. 
From street to street he piped advancing. 
And step for step they followed dancing, 120 

Until they came to the river Weser, 

Wherein all plunged and perished ! 
— Save one who, stout as Julius Caesar, 
Swam across and lived to carry 

(As he, the manuscript he cherished) 125 



30 Browning's Poems 

To Rat-land home his commentary : 

Which was, " At the first shrill notes of the pipe, 

I heard a sound as of scraping tripe, 

And putting apples, wondrous ripe, 

Into a cider-press's gripe : 130 

And a moving away of pickle-tub-boards. 

And a leaving ajar of conserve-cupboards. 

And a drawing the corks of train-oil-flasks. 

And a breaking the hoops of butter-casks : 

And it seemed as if a voice 135 

(Sweeter far than by harp or by psaltery 
Is breathed) called out, ' Oh rats, rejoice ! 

The world is grown to one vast dry saltery ! 
So munch on, crunch on, take your nuncheon, 
Breakfast, supper, dinner, luncheon ! ' 140 

And just as a bulky sugar-puncheon, 
All ready staved, like a great sun shone 
Glorious scarce an inch before me, 
Just as methought it said, ' Come, bore me ! ' 
— I found the Weser rolling o'er me." 145 



VIII 

You should have heard the Hamelin people 

Ringing the bells till they rocked the steeple. 

" Go," cried the Mayor, " and get long poles, 

Poke out the nests and block up the holes ! 

Consult with carpenters and builders, 150 

And leave in our town not even a trace 

Of the rats ! " — when suddenly, up the face 

Of the Piper perked in the market-place. 

With a, " First, if you please, my thousand guilders !" 



The Pied Piper of Hamelin 31 

IX 

A thousand guilders ! The Mayor looked blue ; 155 

So did the Corporation too. 

For council dinners made rare havoc 

With Claret, Moselle, Vin-de-Grave, Hock ; 

And half the money would replenish 

Their cellar's biggest butt with Rhenish. 160 

To pay this sum to a wandering fellow 

With a gipsy coat of red and yellow ! 

" Beside," quoth the Mayor with a knowing wink, 

" Our business was done at the river's brink ; 

We saw with our eyes the vermin sink, 165 

And what's dead can't come to life, I think. 

So, friend, we're not the folks to shrink 

From the duty of giving you something for drink, 

And a matter of money to put in your poke ; 

But as for the guilders, what we spoke 170 

Of them, as you very well know, was in joke. 

Beside, our losses have made us thrifty. 

A thousand guilders ! Come, take fifty ! " 



The Piper's face fell, and he cried, 

" No trifling ! I can't wait, beside ! 175 

I've promised to visit by dinner time 

Bagdat, and accept the prime 

Of the Head-Cook's pottage, all he's rich in, 

For having left, in the Caliph's kitchen, 

Of a nest of scorpions no survivor : 180 

With him I proved no bargain-driver. 

With you, don't think I'll bate a stiver ! 



32 Browning's Poems 

And folks who put me in a passion 
May find me pipe after another fashion." 

XI 

" How? " cried the Mayor, " d'ye think I brook 185 

Being worse treated than a Cook ? 

Insulted by a lazy ribald 

With idle pipe and vesture piebald ? 

You threaten us, fellow? Do your worst, 

Blow your pipe there till you burst ! " 190 

xn 
Once more he stept into the street, 

And to his lips again 
Laid his long pipe of smooth straight cane ; 

And ere he blew three notes (such sweet 
Soft notes as yet musician's cunning 195 

Never gave the enraptured air) 
There was a rustling that seemed like a bustling 
Of merry crowds justling at pitching and hustling ; 
Small feet were pattering, wooden shoes clattering, 
Little hands clapping and Httle tongues chattering, 200 
And, like fowls in a farm-yard when barley is scattering. 
Out came the children running. 
All the little boys and girls, 
With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls. 

And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls, 205 

Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after 
The wonderful music with shouting and laughter. 

XIII 

The Mayor was dumb and the Council stood 
As if they were changed into blocks of wood, 



The Pied Piper of Hamelin 33 

Unable to move a step, or cry 210 

To the children merrily skipping by, 

— Could only follow with the eye 

That joyous crowd at the Piper's back. 

But how the Mayor was on the rack. 

And the wretched Council's bosoms beat, 215 

As the Piper turned from the High Street 

To where the Weser rolled its waters 

Right in the way of their sons and daughters ! 

However he turned from South to West, 

And to Koppelberg Hill his steps addressed, 220 

And after him the children pressed ; 

Great was the joy in every breast. 

" He never can cross that mighty top ! 

He's forced to let the piping drop. 

And we shall see our children stop ! " 225 

When, lo, as they reached the mountain-side, 

A wondrous portal opened wide, 

As if a cavern was suddenly hollowed ; 

And the Piper advanced and the children followed, 

And when all were in to the very last, 230 

The door in the mountain-side shut fast. 

Did I say, all? No ! One was lame. 

And could not dance the whole of the way ; 
And in after years, if you would blame 

His sadness, he was used to say, — 235 

" It's dull in our town since my playmates left ! 
I can't forget that I'm bereft 
Of all the pleasant sights they see. 
Which the Piper also promised me. 

For he led us, he said, to a joyous land, 240 

Joining the town and just at hand, 



34 Browning's Poems 

Where waters gushed and fruit-trees grew 

And flowers put forth a fairer hue, 

And everything was strange and new ; 

The sparrows were brighter than peacocks here, 245 

And their dogs outran our fallow deer, 

And honey-bees had lost their stings, 

And horses were born with eagles' wings : 

And just as I became assured 

My lame foot would be speedily cured, 250 

The music stopped and I stood still. 

And found myself outside the hill. 

Left alone against my will, 

To go now limping as before, 

And never hear of that country more ! " 255 

XIV 

Alas, alas for Hamelin ! 

There came into many a burgher's pate 

A text which says that heaven's gate 

Opes to the rich at as easy rate 
As the needle's eye takes a camel in ! 260 

The Mayor sent East, West, North, and South, 
To offer the Piper, by word of mouth. 

Wherever it was men's lot to find him. 
Silver and gold to his heart's content, 
If he'd only return the way he went, 265 

And bring the children behind him. 
But when they saw 'twas a lost endeavour, 
And Piper and dancers were gone forever, 
They made a decree that lawyers never 

Should think their records dated duly 270 

If, after the day of the month and year, 



The Pied Piper of Hamelin 35 

These words did not as well appear, 
^'And so long after what happened here 

On the Twenty-second of July, 
Thirteen hundred and seventy-six : " 275 

And the better in memory to fix 
The place of the children's last retreat, 
They called it, the Pied Piper's Street — 
Where any one playing on pipe or tabor 
Was sure for the future to lose his labour. 280 

Nor suffered they hostelry or tavern 

To shock with mirth a street so solemn ; 
But opposite the place of the cavern 

They wrote the story on a column. 
And on the great church-window painted 285 

The same, to make the world acquainted 
How their children were stolen away, 
And there it stands to this very day. 
And I must not omit to say 

That in Transylvania there's a tribe 290 

Of alien people who ascribe 
The outlandish ways and dress 
On which their neighbours lay such stress, 
To their fathers and mothers having risen 
Out of some subterraneous prison 295 

Into which they were trepanned 
Long time ago in a mighty band 
Out of Hamelin town in Brunswick land, 
But how or why, they don't understand. 

XV 

So, Willy, let me and you be wipers 300 

Of scores out with all men — especially pipers ! 



36 Browning's Poems 

And, whether they pipe us free from rats or from mice, 
If we've promised them aught, let us keep our promise ! 



*'DE GUSTIBUS " 

Your ghost will walk, you lover of trees, 

(If our loves remain) 

In an English lane. 
By a cornfield-side a-flutter with poppies. 
Hark, those two in the hazel coppice — s 

A boy and a girl, if the good fates please. 

Making love, say, — 

The happier they ! 
Draw yourself up from the light of the moon, 
And let them pass, as they will too soon, 10 

With the bean-flowers' boon. 

And the blackbird's tune, 

And May, and June ! 

What I love best in all the world 

Is a castle, precipice-encurled, is 

In a gash of the wind-grieved Apennine. 

Or look for me, old fellow of mine, 

(If I get my head from out the mouth 

O' the grave, and loose my spirit's bands. 

And come again to the land of lands) — 20 

In a sea-side house to the farther South, 

Where the baked cicala dies of drouth, 

And one sharp tree — 'tis a cypress — stands. 

By the many hundred years red-rusted, 

Rough iron-spiked, ripe fruit-o'ercrusted, 25 



Memorabilia 37 

My sentinel to guard the sands 

To the water's edge. For, what expands 

Before the house, but the great opaque 

Blue breadth of sea without a break ? 

While, in the house, for ever crumbles 30 

Some fragment of the frescoed walls. 

From blisters where a scorpion sprawls. 

A girl bare-footed brings, and tumbles 

Down on the pavement, green-flesh melons, 

And says there's news to-day — the king 35 

Was shot at, touched in the liver-wing. 

Goes with his Bourbon arm in a sling : 

— She hopes they have not caught the felons. 

Italy, my Italy ! 

Queen Mary's saying serves for me — 40 

(When fortune's malice 

Lost her — Calais) — 
Open my heart and you will see 
Graved inside of it, "Italy." 

Such lovers old are I and she : 45 

So it always was, so shall ever be ! 

MEMORABILIA 

Ah, did you once see Shelley plain, 
And did he stop and speak to you, 

And did you speak to him again ? 
How strange it seems and new ! 

But you were living before that, s 

And also you are living after ; 
And the memory I started at — 

My starting moves your laughter. 



38 Browning's Poems 

I crossed a moor, with a name of its own 

And a certain use in the world no doubt, 10 

Yet a hand's-breadth of it shines alone 
'Mid the blank miles round about : 

For there I picked up on the heather, 

And there I put inside my breast 
A moulted feather, an eagle-feather ! 15 

Well, I forget the rest. 

INSTANS TYRANNUS 

I 

Or the milhon or two, more or less, 
I rule and possess, 
One man, for some cause undefined. 
Was least to my mind. 

II 
I struck him, he grovelled of course — S 

For, what was his force? 
I pinned him to earth with my weight 
And persistence of hate : 

And he lay, would not moan, would not curse, 
As his lot might be worse. 10 

III 
''Were the object less mean, would he stand 
At the swing of my hand ! 
For obscurity helps him and blots 
The hole where he squats." 

So, I set my five wits on the stretch - 15 

To inveigle the wretch. 



Instans Tyrannus 39 

All in vain ! Gold and jewels I threw, 

Still he couched there perdue ; 

I tempted his blood and his flesh, 

Hid in roses my mesh, 20 

Choicest cates and the flagon's best spilth : 

Stifl he kept to his filth. 

IV 

Had he kith now or kin, were access 

To his heart, did I press : 

Just a son or a mother to seize ! 25 

No such booty as these. 

Were it simply a friend to pursue 

'Mid my million or two, 

Who could pay me in person or pelf 

What he owes me himself ! 30 

No : I could not but smile through my chafe : 

For the fellow lay safe 

As his mates do, the midge and the nit, 

— Through minuteness, to wit. 

V 

Then a humor more great took its place 35 

At the thought of his face. 

The droops, the low cares of the mouth, 

The trouble uncouth 

'Twixt the brows, all that air one is fain 

To put out of its pain. 40 

And, " no ! " I admonished myself, 

" Is one mocked by an elf. 

Is one baflied by toad or by rat ? 

The gravamen's in that ! 



40 Browning's Poems 

How the lion, who crouches to suit 4S 

His back to my foot, 

Would admire that I stand in debate ! 

But the small turns the great 

If it vexes you, — that is the thing ! 

Toad or rat vex the king ? 50 

Though I waste half my realm to unearth 

Toad or rat, 'tis well worth ! " 

VI 

So, I soberly laid my last plan 

To extinguish the man. 

Round his creep-hole, with never a break, 55 

Ran my fires for his sake ; 

Over-head, did my thunder combine 

With my underground mine : 

Till I looked from my labor content 

To enjoy the event. 60 

VII 

When sudden . . . how think ye, the end? 

Did I say " without friend " ? 

Say rather, from marge to blue marge 

The whole sky grew his targe 

With the sun's self for visible boss, 65 

While an Arm ran across 

Which the earth heaved beneath like a breast 

Where the wretch was safe prest ! 

Do you see? Just my vengeance complete. 

The man sprang to his feet, 70 

Stood erect, caught at God's skirts, and prayed ! 

— So, Z" was afraid ! 



Tray 41 

TRAY 

Sing me a hero ! Quench my thirst 
Of souls, ye bards ! 

Quoth Bard the first : 
" Sir Olaf, the good knight, did don 
His helm and eke his habergeon "... 
Sir Olaf and his bard — ! 5 

" That sin-scathed brow " (quoth Bard the second), 

^' That eye wide ope as though Fate beckoned 

My hero to some steep, beneath 

Which precipice smiled tempting death "... 

You too without your host have reckoned ! 10 

" A beggar-child " (let's hear this third !) 

'' Sat on a quay's edge : like a bird 

Sang to herself at careless play, 

And fell into the stream. ' Dismay ! 

Help, you the standers-by ! ' None stirred. is 

" Bystanders reason, think of wives 

And children ere they risk their lives. 

Over the balustrade has bounced 

A mere instinctive dog, and pounced 

Plumb on the prize. ' How well he dives ! 20 

" *Up he comes with the child, see, tight 

In mouth, alive too, clutched from quite 

A depth of ten feet — twelve, I bet ! 

Good dog ! What, off again? There's yet 

Another child to save ? All right ! 25 



42 Browning's Poems 

" ' How strange we saw no other fall ! 

It's instinct in the animal. 

Good dog ! But he's a long while under : 

If he got drowned I should not wonder — 

Strong current, that against the wall ! 30 

" ' Here he comes, holds in mouth this time 

— What may the thing be? Well, that's prime ! 

Now, did you ever? Reason reigns 

In man alone, since all Tray's pains 

Have fished — the child's doll from the sHme ! ' 35 

" And so, amid the laughter gay. 

Trotted my hero off, — old Tray, — 

Till somebody, prerogatived 

With reason, reasoned : ' Why he dived. 

His brain would show us, I should say. 40 

" ' John, go and catch — or, if needs be. 

Purchase — that animal for me ! 

By vivisection, at expense 

Of half-an-hour and eighteenpence, 

How brain secretes dog's soul, we'll see ! ' " 45 



CAVALIER TUNES 
I 

MARCHING ALONG 

Kentish Sir Byng stood for his King, 

Bidding the crop-headed Parliament swing : 

And, pressing a troop unable to stoop 

And see the rogues flourish and honest folk droop. 



Cavalier Tunes 43 

Marched them along, fifty-score strong, 5 

Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song. 

God for King Charles ! Pym and such carles 

To the Devil that prompts 'em their treasonous paries ! 

Cavaliers, up ! Lips from the cup. 

Hands from the pasty, nor bite take nor sup 10 

Till you're — 

Chorus. — Marching along, fifty-score strong, 

Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song. 

Hampden to hell, and his obsequies' knell 
Serve Hazelrig, Fiennes, and young Harry as well ! 
England, good cheer ! Rupert is near ! 15 

Kentish and loyalists, keep we not here, 

Chorus. — Marching along, fifty-score strong, 

Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song f 

Then, God for King Charles ! Pym and his snarls 
To the Devil that pricks on such pestilent carles ! 20 

Hold by the right, you double your might ; 
So, onward to Nottingham, fresh for the fight, 
Chorus. — March we along, fifty-score strong. 

Great-hearted gentlemen, singing this song! 

II 

GIVE A ROUSE 

King Charles, and who'll do him right now? 
King Charles, and who's ripe for fight now? 
Give a rouse : here's, in hell's despite now, 
King Charles ! , 



44 Browning's Poems 

Who gave me the goods that went since? S 

Who raised me the house that sank once? 
Who helped me to gold I spent since ? 
Who found me in wine you drank once? 
Chorus. — 

King Charles, and whoHl do him right now? 

King Charles, and who^s ripe for fight now ? lo 

Give a rouse: here's, in helVs despite now, 

King Charles ! 

To whom used my boy George quaff else, 

By the old fool's side that begot him ? 

For whom did he cheer and laugh else, 15 

While Noll's damned troopers shot him ? 
Chorus. — 

King Charles, and whoHl do him right now? 
King Charles, and who's ripe for fight now f 
Give a rouse: here's, in helVs despite now, 
King Charles! 20 

III 

BOOT AND SADDLE 

Boot, saddle, to horse, and away ! 
Rescue my castle before the hot day 
Brightens to blue from its silvery gray. 

Chorus. — Boot, saddle, to horse, and away! 

Ride past the suburbs, asleep as you'd say ; 5 

Many's the friend there, will listen and pray 
" God's luck to gallants that strike up the lay — 
Chorus. — Boots, saddle, to horse, and away! " 



Herve Riel 45 

Forty miles off, like a roebuck at bay, 
Flouts Castle Brancepeth the Roundheads' array: 10 

Who laughs, " Good fellows ere this, by my fay, 
Chorus. — Boot, saddle, to horse, and away ! " 

Who ? My wife Gertrude ; that, honest and gay, 
Laughs when you talk of surrendering, '' Nay ! 
I've better counsellors ; what counsel they ? 15 

CHORUS. — Boot, saddle, to horse, and away I " 

HERVE RIEL 



On the sea and at the Hogue, sixteen hundred ninety-two, 

Did the English fight the French, — woe to France ! 
And, the thirty-first of May, helter-skelter through the 

blue. 
Like a crowd of frightened porpoises a shoal of sharks 
pursue. 
Came crowding ship on ship to Saint-Malo on the 
Ranee, 5 

With the English fleet in view. 

II 

'Twas the squadron that escaped, with the victor in full 
chase ; 
First and foremost of the drove, in his great ship, Dam- 
freville ; 

Close on him fled, great and small. 
Twenty-two good ships in all; 10 

And they signalled to the place 
" Help the winners of a race ! 



4-6 Browning's Poems 

Get us guidance, give us harbour, take us quick — or, 
quicker still. 
Here's the English can and will ! " 

III 

Then the pilots of the place put out brisk and leapt on 

board ; 15 

" Why, what hope or chance have ships like these to 

pass? " laughed they: 

'^ Rocks to starboard, rocks to port, all the passage scarred 

and scored, — 
Shall the ' Formidable ' here, with her twelve and eighty 
guns. 
Think to make the river-mouth by the single narrow way, 
Trust to enter — where 'tis ticklish for a craft of twenty 
tons, 20 

And with flow at full beside ? 
Now, 'tis slackest ebb of tide. 
Reach the mooring? Rather say, 
While rock stands or water runs. 

Not a ship will leave the bay ! " 25 

« 

IV 

Then was called a council straight. 

Brief and bitter the debate : 

''Here's the English at our heels; would you have them 

take in tow 
All that's left us of the fleet, linked together stern and bow, 
For a prize to Plymouth Sound ? 30 

Better run the ships aground ! " 

(Ended Damfreville his speech.) 



Herve Ricl 47 

'' Not a minute more to wait ! 

Let the Captains all and each 

Shove ashore, then blow up, burn the vessels on the 
beach ! 35 

France must undergo her fate. 

V 

Give the word ! " But no such word 
Was ever spoke or heard ; 

For up stood, for out stepped, for in struck amid all 
these 
— A Captain ? A Lieutenant ? A Mate — first, second, 
third ? 40 

No such man of mark, and meet 
With his betters to compete ! 

But a simple Breton sailor pressed by Tourville for the 
fleet, 
A poor coasting-pilot he, Herve Riel the Croisickese. 

VI 

And ''What mockery or malice have we here?" cries 
Herve Riel : 45 

"Are you mad, you Malouins? Are you cowards, 
fools, or rogues? 

Talk to me of rocks and shoals, me who took the soundings, 
tell 

On my fingers every bank, every shallow, every swell 
'Twixt the ofiEing here and Greve where the river dis- 
embogues ? 

Are you bought by English gold ? Is it love the lying's 
for ? 50 



48 Browning's Poems 

Morn and eve, night and day, 
Have I piloted your bay. 
Entered free and anchored fast at the foot of Solidor. 
Burn the fleet and ruin France? That were worse than 
fifty Hogues ! 
Sirs, they know I speak the truth ! Sirs, believe 
me there's a way ! S5 

Only let me lead the line. 

Have the biggest ship to steer, 
Get this ' Formidable ' clear. 
Make the others follow mine. 

And I lead them, most and least, by a passage I know 
well, 60 

Right to Solidor past Greve, 

And there lay them safe and sound ; 
And if one ship misbehave, — 
— Keel so much as grate the ground. 
Why, I've nothing but my life, — here's my head ! " 
cries Herve Riel. 65 

VII 

Not a minute more to wait. 

" Steer us in, then, small and great ! 

Take the helm, lead the hne, save the squadron ! " cried 
its chief. 
Captains, give the sailor place ! 

He is Admiral, in brief. 70 

Still the north-wind, by God's .grace ! 
See the noble fellow's face 
As the big ship, with a bound. 
Clears the entry like a hound, 



Herve Ricl ^ 49 

Keeps the passage, as its inch of way were the wide sea's 
profound ! 75 

See, safe thro' shoal and rock, 

How they follow in a flock, 
Not a ship that misbehaves, not a keel that grates the 
ground, 

Not a spar that comes to grief ! 
The peril, see, is past, 80 

All are harboured to the last. 

And just as Herve Riel hollas " Anchor ! " — sure as fate, 
Up the English come, — too late ! 

VIII 

So, the storm subsides to calm : 

They see the green trees wave 85 

On the heights o'erlooking Greve. 
Hearts that bled are stanched with balm. 
" Just our rapture to enhance. 

Let the English rake the bay. 
Gnash their teeth and glare askance 90 

As they cannonade away ! 
'Neath rampired Solidor pleasant riding on the Ranee ! " 
How hope succeeds despair on each Captain's countenance ! 
Out burst all with one accord, 

" This is Paradise for Hell ! q5 

Let France, let France's King 

Thank the man that did the thing ! " 
What a shout, and all one word, '^ Herve Riel ! " 
As he stepped in front once more, 

Not a symptom of surprise 100 

In the frank blue Breton eyes. 
Just the same man as before. 



50 Browning's Poems 

IX 

Then said Damfreville, " My friend, 
I must speak out at the end, 

Though I find the speaking hard. 105 

Praise is deeper than the hps : 
You have saved the King his ships. 

You must name your own reward. 
'Faith, our sun was near edipse ! 

Demand whate'er you will, no 

France remains your debtor still. 

Ask to heart's content and have ! or my name's not Dam- 
freville." ' 



Then a beam of fun outbroke 

On the bearded mouth that spoke, 

As the honest heart laughed through ns 

Those frank eyes of Breton blue : 

" Since I needs must say my say, 

Since on board the duty's done, 

And from Malo Roads to Croisic Point, what is it but 
a run ? — 
Since 'tis ask and have, I may — 120 

Since the others go ashore — 
Come ! A good whole holiday ! 

Leave to go and see my wife, whom I call the Belle 
Aurore ! " 

That he asked and that he got, — nothing more. 

XI 

Name and deed alike are lost: 125 

Not a pillar nor a post 



Pheidippides 51 

In his Croisic keeps alive the feat as it befell ; 
Not a head in white and black 
On a single fishing-smack, 
In memory of the man but for whom had gone to wrack 130 

All that France saved from the fight whence England 
bore the bell. 
Go to Paris : rank on rank 

Search the heroes flung pell-mell 
On the Louvre, face and flank ! 

You shall look long enough ere you come to Herve 
Riel. 135 

So, for better and for worse, 
Herve Riel, accept my verse ! 
In my verse, Herve Riel, do thou once more 
Save the squadron, honour France, love thy wife the Belle 
Aurore ! 

PHEIDIPPIDES 

Xat/oere, vtKcu/xev 

First I salute this soil of the blessed, river and rock ! 

Gods of my birthplace, daemons and heroes, honour to all ! 

Then I name thee, claim thee for our patron, co-equal 
in praise 

— Ay, with Zeus the Defender, with Her of the aegis and 
spear ! 

Also, ye of the bow and the buskin, praised be your peer, 5 

Now, henceforth and forever, — O latest to whom I up- 
raise 

Hand and heart and voice ! For Athens, leave pasture 
and flock ! 

Present to help, potent to save, Pan — patron I call ! 



^2 Browning's Poems 

Archons of Athens, topped .by the tettix, see, T return ! 

See, 'tis myself here standing aUve, no spectre that 
speaks ! lo 

Crowned with the myrtle, did you command me, Athens 
and you, 

'^ Run, Pheidippides, run and race, reach Sparta for aid ! 

Persia has come, we are here, where is She? " Your com- 
mand I obeyed. 

Ran and raced : Uke stubble, some field which a fire runs 
through. 

Was the space between city and city: two days, two 
nights did I burn 15 

Over the hills, under the dales, down pits and up peaks. 

Into their midst I broke: breath served but for "Persia 
has come ! 

Persia bids Athens proffer slaves'-tribute, water and 
earth ; 

Razed to the ground is Erctria — but Athens, shall Athens 
sink, 

Drop into dust and die — the flower of Hellas utterly die , 20 

Die, with the wide world spitting at Sparta, the stupid, 
the stander-by? 

Answer me quick, what help, what hand do you stretch 
o'er destruction's brink? 

How, — when? No care for my limbs! — there's light- 
ning in all and some — 

Fresh and fit your message to bear, once lips give it birth ! " 

O my Athens — Sparta love thee ? Did Sparta respond? 25 
Every face of her leered in a furrow of envy, mistrust. 
Malice, — each eye of her gave me its glitter of gratified 
hate ! 



Pheldlppides 53 

Gravely they turned to take counsel, to cast for excuses. 

I stood 
Quivering, — the limbs of me fretting as fire frets, an inch 

from dry wood : 
" Persia has come, Athens asks aid, and still they debate ? 30 
Thunder, thou Zeus ! Athene, are Spartans a quarry 

beyond 
Swing of thy spear? Phoibos and Artemis, clang them 

' Ye must ' ! " 



No bolt launched from Olympos ! Lo, their answer at 

last! 
" Has Persia come, — does Athens ask aid, — may Sparta 

befriend ? 
Nowise precipitate judgment — too weighty the issue at 

stake ! 35 

Count we no time lost time which lags through respect to 

the gods ! 
Ponder that precept of old, ' No warfare, whatever the 

odds 
In your favour, so long as the moon, half-orbed, is unable 

to take 
Full-circle her state in the sky ! ' Already she rounds to it 

fast : 
Athens must wait, patient as we — who judgment sus- 
pend." 40 

Athens, — except for that sparkle, — thy name, I had 

mouldered to ash ! 
That sent a blaze through my blood ; off, off and away was 

I back. 



54 Browning's Poems 

— Not one word to waste, one look to lose on the false and 

the vile ! 
Yet " O gods of my land ! " I cried, as each hillock and 

plain. 
Wood and stream, I knew, I named, rushing past them 

again, 45 

" Have ye kept faith, proved mindful of honours we paid 

you erewhile ? 
Vain was the filleted victim, the fulsome libation ! Too 

rash 
Love in its choice, paid you so largely service so slack ! 

" Oak and olive and bay, — I bid you cease to enwreathe 
Brows made bold by your leaf ! Fade at the Persian's 

foot, 50 

You that, our patrons were pledged, should never adorn a 

slave ! 
Rather I hail thee, Parnes, — trust to thy wild waste tract ! 
Treeless, herbless, lifeless mountain ! What matter if 

slacked 
My speed may hardly be, for homage to crag and to cave 
No diety deigns to drape with verdure? at least I can 

breathe, 55 

Fear in thee no fraud from the blind, no lie from the 

mute ! " 

Such my cry as, rapid, I ran over Parnes' ridge ; 
Gully and gap I clambered and cleared till, sudden, a bar 
Jutted, a stoppage of stone against me, blocking the way. 
Right ! for I minded the hollow to traverse, the fissure 

across : 60 

" Where I could enter, there I depart by ! Night in the 

fosse ? 



Pheidippides 55 

Athens to aid? Though the dive were through Erebos, 

thus I obey — 
Out of the day dive, into the day as bravely arise ! No 

bridge 
Better ! " — when — ha ! what was it I came on, of 

wonders that are? 

There, in the cool of a cleft, sat he — majestical Pan : 65 
Ivy drooped wanton, kissed his head, moss cushioned his 

hoof : 
All the great god was good in the eyes grave-kindly — the 

curl 
Carved on the bearded cheek, amused at a mortal's awe. 
As, under the human trunk, the goat-thighs grand I 

saw. 
" Halt, Pheidippides ! " — halt I did, my brain of a 

whirl : 70 

^' Hither to me ! Why pale in my presence ? " he gracious 

began : 
" How is it, — Athens, only in Hellas, holds me aloof? 

" Athens, she only, rears me no fane, makes me no feast ! 

Wherefore? Than I what godship to Athens more help- 
ful of old? 

Ay, and still, and for ever her friend! Test Pan, trust 
me! 75 

Go, bid Athens take heart, laugh Persia to scorn, have 
faith 

In the temples and tombs ! Go, say to Athens, ' The 
Goat-God saith : 

When Persia — so much as strews not the soil — is cast in 
the sea, 



56 Browning's Poems 

Then praise Pan who fought in the ranks with your most 

and least, 
Goat-thigh to greaved- thigh, made one cause with the 

free and the bold ! ' 80 

" Say Pan saith : ' Let this, foreshowing the place, be the 

pledge ! ' " 
(Gay, the liberal hand held out this herbage I bear 
— Fennel — I grasped it a-tremble with dew — whatever 

it bode) 
" While, as for thee "... But enough ! He was gone. 

If I ran hitherto — 
Be sure that, the rest of my journey, I ran no longer, but 

flew. 85 

Parnes to Athens — earth no more, the air was my road : 
Here am I back. Praise Pan, we stand no more on the 

razor's edge ! 
Pan for Athens, Pan for me ! I too have a guerdon rare ! 



Then spoke Miltiades, " And thee, best runner of Greece, 
Whose limbs did duty indeed, — what gift is promised 

thyself ? go 

Tell it us straightway, — Athens the mother demands of 

her son ! " 
Rosily blushed the youth : he paused : but, lifting at length 
His eyes from the ground, it seemed as he gathered the 

rest of his strength 
Into the utterance — " Pan spoke thus : ' For what thou 

hast done 
Count on a worthy reward ! Henceforth be allowed thee 

release 95 



Pheldlppldes 57 

From the racer's toil, no vulgar reward in praise or in 
pelf ! ' 

" I am bold to believe, Pan means reward the most to my 

mind ! 
Fight I shall, with our foremost, wherever this fennel 

may grow, — 
Pound — Pan helping us — Persia to dust, and, under the 

deep. 
Whelm her away for ever ; and then, — no Athens to 

save, — 100 

Marry a certain maid, I know keeps faith to the brave, — 
Hie to my house and home : and, when my children shall 

creep ♦ 

Close to my knees, — recount how the God was awful yet 

kind, 
Promised their sire reward to the full — rewarding him — 

so ! " 



Unforeseeing one ! Yes, he fought on the Marathon 
day : 105 

So, when Persia was dust, all cried " To Akropolis ! 

Run, Pheidippides, one race more ! the meed is thy due ! 

' Athens is saved, thank Pan,' go shout ! " He flung down 
his shield. 

Ran like fire once more : and the space 'twixt the Fennel- 
field 

And Athens was stubble again, a field which a fire runs 
through, no 

Till in he broke: "Rejoice, we conquer!" Like wine 
through clay, 

Joy in his blood bursting his heart, he died — the bliss ! 



58 Browning's Poems 

So, to this day, when friend meets friend, the word of 

salute 
Is still " Rejoice ! " — his word which brought rejoicing 

indeed. 
So is Pheidippides happy for ever, — the noble strong 

man 115 

Who could race like a god, bear the face of a god, whom 

a god loved so well ; 
He saw the land saved he had helped to save, and was 

suffered to tell 
Such tidings, yet never decline, but, gloriously as he began, 
So to end gloriously — once to shout, thereafter be mute : 
" Athens is saved ! " — Pheidippides dies in the shout 

for his meed. 120 

THE PATRIOT 

It was roses, roses, all the way. 

With myrtle mixed in my path like mad : 

The house-roofs seemed to heave and sway, 
The church-spires flamed, such flags they had, 

A year ago on this very day. 5 

The air broke into a mist with bells. 

The old walls rocked with the crowd and cries. 

Had I said, " Good folk, mere noise repels — 
But give me your sun from yonder skies ! " 

They had answered, " And afterward, what else? " 10 

Alack, it was I who leaped at the sun 

To give it my loving friends to keep ! 
Naught man could do, have I left undone : 

And you see my harvest, what I reap 
This very day, now a year is run. 15 



Rabbi Ben Ezra 59 

There's nobody on the house-tops now — 
Just a palsied few at the windows set ; 

For the best of the sight is, all allow, 
At the Shambles' Gate — or, better yet, 

By the very scaffold's foot, I trow. 20 

I go in the rain, and, more than needs, 

A rope cuts both my wrists behind ; 
And I think, by the feel, my forehead bleeds. 

For they fling, whoever has a mind. 
Stones at me for my year's misdeeds. 25 

Thus I entered, and thus I go ! 

In triumphs, people have dropped down dead. 
" Paid by the world, what dost thou owe 

Me? " — God might question ; now instead, 
'Tis God shall repay : I am safer so. 30 

RABBI BEN EZRA 

Grow old along with me ! 

The best is yet to be. 
The last of life, for which the first was made : 

Our times are in His hand 

Who saith " A whole I planned, 5 

Youth shows but half ; trust God : see all nor be afraid ! " 

Not that, amassing flowers. 

Youth sighed " Which rose make ours, 

Which lily leave and then as best recall? " 

Not that, admiring stars, 10 

It yearned " Nor Jove, nor Mars ; 

Mine be some figured flame which blends, transcends 
them all ! " 



6o Browning's Poems 

Not for such hopes and fears 

AnnulHng youth's brief years, 
Do I remonstrate : folly wide the mark ! 15 

Rather I prize the doubt 

Low kinds exist without, 
Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark. 

Poor vaunt of life indeed. 

Were man but formed to feed 20 

On joy, to solely seek and find and feast : 

Such feasting ended, then 

As sure an end to men ; 
Irks care the crop-full bird? Frets doubt the maw- 
crammed beast ? 

Rejoice we are allied 25 

To That which doth provide 
And not partake, effect and not receive ! 

A spark disturbs our clod ; 

Nearer we hold of God 
Who gives, than of His tribes that take, I must believe. 30 

Then, welcome each rebuff 

That turns earth's smoothness rough, 
Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go ! 

Be our joys three-parts pain ! 

Strive, and hold cheap the strain ; 35 

Learn, nor account the pang ; dare, never grudge the throe ! 

For thence, — a paradox 

Which comforts while it mocks, — 
Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail : 

What I aspired to be, 40 

And was not, comforts me : 
A brute I might have been, but would not sink i' the scale. 



Rabbi Ben Ezra 6i 

What is he but a brute 

Whose flesh has soul to suit, 
Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play ? 45 

To man, propose this test — 

Thy body at its best, 
How far can that project thy soul on its lone way? 

Yet gifts should prove their use : 

I own the Past profuse so 

Of power each side, perfection every turn : 

Eyes, ears took in their dole. 

Brain treasured up the whole ; 
Should not the heart beat once " How good to live and 
learn"? 

Not once beat " Praise be Thine ! ss 

I see the whole design, 
I, who saw power, see now Love perfect too: 

Perfect I call Thy plan : 

Thanks that I was a man ! 
Maker, remake, complete, — I trust what Thou shalt 
do ! " 60 

For pleasant is this flesh ; 

Our soul, in its rose-mesh 
Pulled ever to the earth, still yearns for rest: 

Would we some prize might hold 

To match those manifold 65 

Possessions of the brute, — gain most, as we did best ! 

Let us not always say 
'' Spite of this flesh to-day 
I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole [ " 



62 Browning's Poems 

As the bird wings and sings, 70 

Let us cry '' All good things 
Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps 
soul ! " 

Therefore I summon age 

To grant youth's heritage, 
Life's struggle having so far reached its term : 75 

Thence shall I pass, approved 

A man, for aye removed 
From the developed brute ; a god though in the germ. 

And I shall thereupon 

Take rest, ere I be gone 80 

Once more on my adventure brave and new : 

Fearless and unperplexed. 

When I wage battle next. 
What weapons to select, what armour to indue. 

Youth ended, I shall try 85 

My gain or loss thereby ; 
Leave the fire ashes, what survives is gold : 

And I shall weigh the same, 

Give life its praise or blame : 
Young, all lay in dispute ; I shall know, being old. 90 

For note, when evening shuts, 

A certain moment cuts 
The deed off, calls the glory from the gray : 

A whisper from the west 

Shoots — " Add this to the rest, 95 

Take it and try its worth : here dies another day." 



Rabbi Ben Ezra 63 

So, still within this life, 

Though lifted o'er its strife. 
Let me discern, compare, pronounce at last, 

" This rage was right i' the main, 100 

That acquiescence vain : 
The Future I may face now I have proved the Past." 

For more is not reserved 

To man, with soul just nerved 
To act to-morrow what he learns to-day : 105 

Here, work enough to watch 

The Master work, and catch 
Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool's true play. 

As it was better, youth 

Should strive, through acts uncouth no 

Toward making, than repose on aught found made : 

So, better, age, exempt 

From strife, should know, than tempt 
Further. Thou waitedst age : wait death nor be afraid ! 

Enough now, if the Right 115 

And Good and Infinite 
Be named here, as thou callest thy hand thine own, 

With knowledge absolute. 

Subject to no dispute 
From fools that crowded youth, nor let thee feel alone. 120 

Be there, for once and all. 

Severed great minds from small. 
Announced to each his station in the Past ! 

Was I, the world arraigned, 

Were they, my soul disdained, 125 

Right? Let age speak the truth and give us peace at last ! 



64 Browning's Poems 

Now, who shall arbitrate? 

Ten men love what I hate, 
Shun what I follow, slight what I receive ; 

Ten, who in ears and eyes 130 

Match me : we all surmise, 
They this thing, and I that : whom shall my soul believe ? 

Not on the vulgar mass 

Called " work," must sentence pass. 
Things done, that took the eye and had the price ; 135 

O'er which, from level stand. 

The low world laid its hand. 
Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice : 

But all, the world's coarse thumb 

And finger failed to plumb, 140 

So passed in making up the main account ; 

All instincts immature. 

All purposes unsure. 
That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man's 
amount : 

Thoughts hardly to be packed 145 

Into a narrow act. 
Fancies that broke through language and escaped ; 

All I could never be. 

All, men ignored in me. 
This, I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher 

shaped. 150 

Ay, note that Potter's wheel, 
That metaphor ! and feel 
Why time spins fast, why passive lies our clay, — 



Rabbi Ben Ezra 65 

Thou, to whom fools propound, 
When the wine makes its round, 155 

" Since life fleets, all is change ; the Past gone, seize to- 
day ! " 

Fool ! All that is, at all, 

Lasts ever, past recall ; 
Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure : 

What entered into thee, 160 

That was, is, and shall be : 
Time's wheel runs back or stops : Potter and clay endure. 

He fixed thee, mid this dance 

Of plastic circumstance, 
This Present, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest : 165 

Machinery just meant 

To give thy soul its bent. 
Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently impressed. 

What though the earlier grooves 

Which ran the laughing loves 170 

Around thy base, no longer pause and press? 

What thought, about thy rim. 

Skull-things in order grim 
Grow out, in graver mood, obey the sterner stress? 

Look not thou down but up ! 17s 

To uses of a cup, 
The festal board, lamp's flash and trumpet's peal. 

The new wine's foaming flow. 

The Master's lips aglow ! 
Thou, heaven's consummate cup, what need'st thou with 
earth's wheel ? 180 



66 Browning's Poems 

But I need, now as then, 

Thee, God, who mouldest men ; 
And since, not even while the whirl was worst, 

Did I, — to the wheel of Hfe 

With shapes and colours rife, 185 

Bound dizzily, — mistake my end, to slake Thy thirst : 

So, take and use Thy work : 

Amend what flaws may lurk. 
What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim ! 

My times be in Thy hand ! 190 

Perfect the cup as planned ! 
Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same ! 

EPILOGUE TO ASOLANDO 

At the midnight in the silence of the sleep-time. 

When you set your fancies free. 
Will they pass to where — by death, fools think, im- 
prisoned — 
Low he lies who once so loved you, whom you loved so 

— Pity me ? 5 

Oh to love so, be so loved, yet so mistaken ! 

What had I on earth to do 
With the slothful, with the mawkish, the unmanly? 
Like the aimless, helpless, hopeless, did I drivel 

— Being — who ? 10 

One who never turned his back but marched breast for- 
ward. 
Never doubted clouds would break, 



Epilogue to Asolando 67 

Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would 

triumph, 
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, 

Sleep to wake. 15 

No, at noonday in the bustle of man's worktime 

Greet the unseen with a cheer ! 
Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be, 
" Strive and thrive ! " cry " Speed, — fight on, fare ever 
There as here ! " 20 



NOTES 

MY STAR 

First published in Men and Women, 1855. A love lyric 
supposed to refer to Mrs. Browning, It is a tribute to the 
personal element in love, " showing how the soul of the loved 
one reveals itself fully to the sympathetic insight of the lover 
alone, who, having this revelation, cares nothing if the choice 
of others be more distinguished." 

4. angled spar : a prism, which has the property of breaking 
up light into its component parts. 

9. dartles : darts, probably a word coined by Browning. 

11. They must solace themselves with the Saturn above it : 
others can study and know the planets, he cares to know only 
his star. 

A FACE 

A portrait of a beautiful girl painted in words by a poet 
who had all the sympathies of an artist. " No poem in the 
volume of Dramatis Personce is connected with pictorial art, 
unless it be the few lines entitled A Face, lines of which Emily 
Patmore, the wife of Coventry Patmore, the poet, was the sub- 
ject, and written, as Browning seldom wrote, for the mere 
record of beauty. That ' little head of hers ' is transferred 
to Browning's panel in the manner of an early Tuscan piece 
of ideal loveliness." (Dowden : Life of Browning.) 

3. Tuscan's art : the early Tuscan artists frequently painted 
portraits upon a background of gold. 

9. Burthen : burden, load. 

11. lithe : easily bent, limber. 

69 



70 Browning's Poems 

14. Correggio : Antonio AUegri da Correggio, a famous Lom- 
bard painter. 

MY LAST DUCHESS 

First published in Dramatic Lyrics, 1842. This is one of 
the earHest specimens of the " dramatic monologues," a variety 
of verse which became Browning's favorite form. The poem 
depicts jealousy which has no love in it. A widowed Duke of 
Ferrara is showing a portrait of his former wife to the envoy 
of some nobleman whose daughter he is trying to marry. The 
remarks of the Duke are intended to convey to the envoy and 
through him to the lady what he demands in his new wife, — the 
concentration of her whole being on himself and the utmost 
devotion to his will, Mr. Arthur Symonds says : " The poem 
is a subtle study in the jealousy of egoism, not a study so much 
as a creation ; and it places before us, as if bitten out by the 
etcher's acid, a typical autocrat of the Renaissance, with his 
serene self-composure of selfishness, quiet, uncompromising 
cruelty, and genuine devotion to art." Note that although the 
verses rhyme the effect is that of blank verse. 

The Duke speaks throughout the whole poem. 

3. Fra Pandolf : Fra Pandolf and Claus of Innsbruck are 
imaginary artists. 

40. lessoned : note the use of this word as a verb. 

47. Will't please you rise : The envoy rises from his seat 
and he and the Duke start for the stairs. 

48. I repeat, etc. : the Duke, in spite of his protestations, is 
anxious to get a good dowry with his new wife. 

63. Nay, we'll go Together down, sir : the acme of courtesy. 

SONGS FROM PIPPA PASSES 

These three songs are taken from Browning's play, Pippa 
Passes, which describes the course of one day in the life of an 
Italian girl, Felippa or Pippa. The first song is the pure joy 
of living. The last two verses of it are frequently quoted. 



Notes 71 

The second song is the lament of a young page that his lady 
is so far above him as to prevent his serving her. The third 
is a love song, expressincr the patience of a lover. 

II. 14. Kate the Queen: Catharine Cornaro, the widow of 
James II, King of Cyprus. After the death of her husband, 
Catharine abdicated her throne in favor of the Repubhc 
of Venice, which granted her a palace at Asolo. There she 
lived a peaceful idyllic life, greatly loved by all, for many 
years. 

26. jesses : little leather thongs or silk strings fastened on 
the legs of hawks in the sport of hawking. The leash by which 
the hawk was held was fastened to these thongs. When the 
hawk was sent up after a bird the leash was untied, leaving the 
jesses on the hawk's legs. 

III. 27. tarry : wait for. 
28. protracted: slow. 

EURYDICE TO ORPHEUS 

First published in the Royal Academy Catalogue, 1864; 
reprinted in the Selections, 1865. " It represents Orpheus 
leading Eurydice away from the infernal regions, but with an 
impUed variation on the story of her subsequent return to 
them. She was restored to Orpheus on the condition of his not 
looking at her until they reached the upper world ; and, as the 
legend goes, the condition proved too hard for him to fulfil. 
But the face of Leighton's Eurydice wears an intensity of 
longing which seems to challenge the forbidden look, and makes 
her responsible for it. The poem thus interprets the expression 
and translates it into words." (Mrs. Orr: Handbook to 
Browning's Works.) 

Eurydice is speaking, just before she is carried back into 
Hades. 

1. But give them me : But give to me the mouth, the eyes, 
the brow. 



72 Browning's Poems 

"THE MOTH'S KISS, FIRST" 

These little songs are from the long dramatic poem In a 
Gondola. The woman sings them. 

4. pursed : contracted, folded up. 
7. ope : poetic form for open. 

MEETING AT NIGHT — PARTING AT 
MORNING 

First published in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, 1845. 
The speaker is a lover who seeks his beloved from whom he 
has to part at morn. These poems are noteworthy for their 
fusion of human emotion and natural scenery. 

15-16. him : the sun. The lover contrasts the sun's path 
of gold with his need of returning to the world of men and the 
work of the day. 

"HOW THEY BROUGHT THE GOOD NEWS FROM 
GHENT TO AIX" 

First published in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, 1845. 
" A rousing good story, of which the key-note is the galloping 
of hard-pushed horses." This poem was written during Brown- 
ing's first journey to Italy in 1838. The incident is imaginary. 
Of the poem Browning says : "I wrote it under the bulwark 
of a vessel off the African coast, after I had been at sea long 
enough to appreciate even the fancy of a gallop on the back 
of a certain good horse * York' then in my stables at home." 
Two of the horses falling dead by the way, the good steed 
Roland is left to reach the goal and save Aix. The distance 
from Ghent to Aix-la-Chapelle is over ninety miles. Hasselt 
is about eighty miles from Ghent ; Dalhem is in sight of Aix. 
Looz and Tongres are off the direct route. Note how the meter 
suggests the galloping of horses. 

1. I : the imaginary person who is telling the story. 

5. postern : the gate through which they had left the city. 



Notes 73 

10. pique : the point of the saddle. 

13. 'Twas moonset: the ride was made between midnight 
of one day and sunset of the next. 

17. Mecheln: the contracted form of Mechelen, Flemish 
for Mechlin. The cathedral tower has its set of chimes. 

43. roan : a horse of a roan color. Roan is a bay, sorrel, or 
chestnut color, with some white or gray hairs interspersed. 

44. croup : the rump or buttocks of a horse. 

49. buff-coat : a thick leather coat. 

50. jack-boots : long boots coming above the knee and 
adding considerably to the weight of the rider. 

59. burgesses : magistrates of the town. 

INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH CAM? 

First published in Dramatic Lyrics, 1842. In 1809 Napoleon 
stormed Ratisbon, a city of Bavaria. The incident narrated 
in this poem is true, but the hero was a man, not a boy. It 
illustrates the heroism that Napoleon was able to inspire in 
his men. An old trooper of Napoleon's is telling the story. 

1. Ratisbon : Ratisbon has endured seventeen sieges, the 
last one being that of Napoleon in 1809. 

5. With neck out-thrust : there are a number of pictures of 
Napoleon in this attitude. 

11, Lannes : Jean Lannes, Duke of Montebello, one of 
Napoleon's marshals. 

29. flag-bird : eagle on the standard. Vans : wings. 

THE LOST LEADER 

First published in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, 1845. 
A lament over the defection of a loved and honored chief. 
It was suggested by Wordsworth's abandonment of the liberal 
cause. Browning says of this poem : "I can only answer, 
with something of shame and contrition, that I undoubtedly 
had Wordsworth in mind, but simply as a model ; you know 
an artist takes one or two striking traits in the features of his 



74 Browning's Poems 

model and uses them to start his fancy on a flight which may 
end far enough from the good man or woman who happened 
to be sitting for nose or eye. I thought of the great Poet's 
abandonment of LiberaHsm at an unlucky juncture, and no 
repaying consequence that I could ever see. But once call 
my fancy portrait Wordsworth, and how much more ought 
one to say !" Perhaps we may consider this as a denial. The 
first of the poem can be applied to Wordsworth only remotely, 
as Wordsworth, although pensioned, never was decorated 
with an order. Compare Whittier's Ichabod in which the poet 
records his feelings at what he judged to be a defection of 
Daniel Webster from the cause of freedom. 

Wordsworth, when a young man, held very liberal or revo- 
lutionary views. After the French Revolution he abandoned 
those ideas and became a conservative. The person speaking 
is supposed to be a liberal who is indignant with Wordsworth 
because he had deserted the liberal cause. 

2. riband : ribbon of a medal or order of nobility. 

3. one gift : success. 

8. Rags : we could have given him only rags to wear as 
a reward for being one of us. If he had been noble enough to 
think our rags as fine apparel as king's garments, he would 
have been proud to wear them. 

13. Shakespeare was of us : Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, 
and Shelley were favorable to the liberal cause while they Hved. 
Now from their graves they are watching and waiting for the 
cause to be successful. He who might have been numbered 
with these great ones alone has fallen away. 

19. quiescence : inactivity in the liberal cause. Deeds 
will be done, but not by him. 

20. crouch : in the attitude of subjection. 

20. whom the rest bade aspire : the allusion is to the efforts 
of the liberals to inspire the lower classes to improve their 
condition. 

28. Never glad confident morning again : even if he should 



Notes 75 

return after his apostasy, we could not have the same confident 
feeling toward him as before. 

LOVE AMONG THE RUINS 

First published in Men and Women, 1855. In this poem is 
depicted a pastoral solitude where are buried the remains of an 
ancient city, fabulous in its magnificence and strength. The 
speaker is to meet his sweetheart in a ruined turret that marks 
the spot where the king of the city used to watch the racing 
chariots as they circled it in their course. He is absorbed in 
a melancholy contemplation of the transitoriness of human 
glory. Against this fleeting background stands out clearly 
the only thing that is eternal, which is Love. 

No historical city is meant, but Browning may have had in 
mind the Homeric Thebes or perhaps Babylon, certainly not 
Rome, as some have suggested. 

The metrical form of the poem is unusual. Note how the 
short even-numbered verses serve as echoes for the verses 
preceding. 

5. Tinkle : notice the suggestiveness of this word. It pic- 
tures the tinkling of the sheep bells as the sheep move slowly 
homeward, stopping and feeding on the way. 

39. caper : a low shrub growing on old walls in fissures of 
rocks in the countries bordering the Mediterranean. 

40. Overscored : crossed back and forth. 
47. minions : courtiers. 

61. folding: shutting up in the folds, many-tinkling fleece : 
the fleece is used here for the sheep with their bells. 

57. caught soul : became filled with a desire to reach the goal. 
66. causeys : causeways. 

HOME -THOUGHTS, FROM ABROAD 

First published in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, 1845. 
A loving reminiscence of an English April and May by one who 
is living in Italy and whose heart is yearning for the delights 



76 Browning's Poems 

of spring in his native England. Appreciation is heightened 
by contrast, the buttercup being pronounced far brighter than 
the " gaudy melon-flower" which the exiled Englishman has 
at this moment before him. This is one of the few poems in 
which Browning uses the scenery of his own country. 

6. bole : the body or trunk of a tree. 

14. he sings each song twice over : an instance of Brown- 
ing's keen observation of the phenomena of nature. 

19. the little children's dower : the buttercups are nature's 
free gift to children. 

HOME-THOUGHTS, FROM THE SEA 

First published in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, 1845. 
An utterance of patriotic pride aroused by the sight of Tra- 
falgar. One of the few poems in which Browning shows his 
English patriotism. 

1. Cape Saint Vincent : the southwestern point of Portugal, 
the scene of Nelson's brilUant victory over the Spanish, 1797. 

2. Cadiz Bay : on the southeastern coast of Spain. An 
English fleet overcame a Spanish fleet there in 1596. 

3. Trafalgar: here Nelson won his great victory, October 21, 
1805, over the French fleet, — the victory which freed England 
from the menace of invasion by Napoleon. 

7. Jove's planet : the planet Jupiter. 

THE ITALIAN IN ENGLAND 

First published in Dramatic Romances and Lyrics, 1845. In 
1844 Browning visited Italy and wrote this poem. It does 
not represent any definite historical incident, but such as 
might have occurred in the life of some Italian patriot who had 
fled from Italy and was now an exile living in England. As 
the patriot reflects upon the incidents of his escape and flight 
from Italy, the wish comes to him that he may see the dis- 
comfiture of his enemies and that he may revisit Italy and see 



Notes "jfj 

once more the woman who had aided him to escape even at 
the risk of her own Hfe. 

3. Austria: at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 Austria was 
given Lombardy and Venetia. Although most of the inhabi- 
tants submitted to the foreign rule, there were always small 
bands of patriots who endeavored to throw off the Austrian 
yoke and to make Italy independent. Both Browning and 
Mrs. Browning were in sympathy with these efforts, and both 
have frequent allusions to the liberation of Italy in their works. 

8. Charles: Charles Albert, Prince of Carignano, of the 
younger branch of the house of Savoy. As indicated in the 
poem, in his youth he was m sj^mpathy with Hberal principles, 
but later left his friends in the lurch and went over to the 
Austrian side. 

19. Metternich : a famous Austrian diplomat, an enemy of 
Italian freedom, friend : sarcastic. 

20. Charles's miserable end : see note on Charles, line 8. 
41. crypt : hiding place, 

75. duomo : the famous cathedral of St. Anthony at Padua. 

76. Tenebrae : darkness. The service commemorative of 
the Crucifixion, in which fifteen lighted candles are put out 
one at a time, symbolizing the growing darkness of the world 
up to the time of the Crucifixion. 

82. From Christ and Freedom : the watchword agreed upon 
between the Patriot and his friends, 

111. How very long, etc. : " How very long is it since I have 
thought of aught else beside the good of Italy !" 

116. Charles : see note on Charles, line 8, 

127. Under his new employers : the government of Austria. 

161. So much for idle wishing : note how this gives a 
realistic touch to the poem. 

UP AT A VILLA — DOWN IN THE CITY 

First published in Men and Women, 1855. A view of fife 
as seen by an Italian of quality who does not care for country 



78 Browning's Poems 

life but who is too poor to live in the city. It is a Hvely de- 
scription of the amusing things of city life as contrasted with 
the dulness of life in a villa. 

4. by Bacchus : " Per Baccho" — Italians still swear by 
the wine-god. 

13. awry : out of line. 

27. foam-bows : miniature rainbows. 

28. pash: strike violently, dash. 

29. conch : shell. 

33. corn : any small grain, but not the maize of America. 

34. thrid: thread. 

35. cicala : the cricket, whose note stuns the ear. 
39. diligence : mail coach. 

42. Pulcinello-trumpet : the trumpet announcing the begin 
ning of the Punch and Judy show. 

43. scene-picture : formerly in Italian towns it was custom- 
ary to post in some conspicuous place, as at the post-ofifice, 
copies of decrees, censure of the clergy, edicts of the local lord, 
poems, notices of sermons, and other matters of general interest. 

44. liberal thieves : the party striving for Italian in- 
dependence. 

47. flowery marge : the margin decorated with floral designs. 

48. Dante: Dante Alighieri, 1265-1321, the most cele- 
brated Italian poet, 

Boccaccio: Giovanni Boccaccio, 1313-1375, a celebrated 
Italian novelist and poet. 

Petrarca: Francesco Petrarca, or Petrarch, 1304-1374, one 
of the most famous of Italian poets and scholars. He is 
famous for his sonnets. 

Saint Jerome : a famous father of the Latin Church, 340-420. 
He published the Latin version of the Bible known as the 
Vulgate. 

Cicero : Marcus TulHus Cicero, 106 B.C.-43 B.C., the most 
celebrated orator, philosopher, and statesman of Rome. 

51. our Lady : the Virgin Mary, the seven swords symboHzing 



Notes 79 

her sorrows and contrasting naively with the pink gauze and 
spangles. 

56. tax upon salt : a reference to the taxes imposed on all 
provisions coming into the city. 

THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN 

First published in Dramatic Lyrics, 1842. This poem was 
written to amuse Httle Willie Macready, the son of Macready, 
the actor. It is based on one of the numerous legends that deal 
with the subject of cheating magicians of a promised reward 
for service rendered, and of the revenge they take. According 
to Verstegan, " A piper named Bunting undertook for a certain 
sum of money to free the town of Hamelin, in Brunswick, of 
the rats which infested it ; but when he had drowned all the 
rats in the river Weser, the townsmen refused to pay the sum 
agreed upon. The piper, in revenge, collected the children of 
Hamelin, and enticed them by his piping into a cavern in the 
side of the mountain Koppenberg, which instantly closed upon 
them." 

This poem is an allegory the meaning of which is given in 
Stanza XV. 

For a beautiful dramatic treatment of this theme, see Mrs. 
Josephine Preston Peabody's The Piper. 

Browning's poem is chiefly remarkable for its rollicking 
wealth of rhymes. 

15. sprats : a small fish often confused with herring. 

23. noddy: simpleton, fool. 

25. gowns lined with ermine : in Europe civic officers 
formerly were furnished with gorgeous uniforms including 
robes lined or trimmed with ermine. These they wore when- 
ever they appeared in public. 

26. dolts: blockheads. 
50. paunch: stomach. 

68. Trump of Doom's: the sound of the angel Gabriel's 
horn which is to arouse the dead. 



8o Browning's Poems 

87. old-fangled : old-fashioned. 

89. Cham : usually KJian, the title of the ruler of the Tartar 
Empire. 

91. Nizam: the title of the sovereign of Hyderabad in India. 

123. Julius Caesar: Shakespeare's Julius Ccesar, Act I, 
Scene 2. 

136. psaltery: a musical instrument of the zither group, 
having many strings which are plucked with the fingers. 

138. dry saltery : a place for curing meat or fish by drying 
and salting. 

139. nuncheon : luncheon. 
141. puncheon : barrel. 

153. perked: to perk is to toss up the head with affected 
smartness. 

169. poke: pouch or pocket. 

177. Bagdat : Bagdad, prime : the choice portion ; com- 
pare, prime ribs of beef. 

182. bate: lower the amount, reduct ; compare, rebate, 
stiver : a small Dutch coin. 

188. piebald : party-colored, alluding to the dress of the 
Piper. 

260. needle's eye : Matthew XIX, 24, " It is easier for 
a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man 
to enter into the kingdom of God." 

296. trepanned : usually written trapanned, ensnared. 

"DE GUSTIBUS — " 

First published in Men and Women, 1855. The expression 
is De gustihus non disputandum, " there is no accounting for 
tastes." In exquisite contrast Browning sets his two loves, 
England and Italy. There is a suggestion of the long struggle 
of Italy for freedom at the close of the poem. 

2. our loves remain : if after death we love the same things 
we loved in life. 

4. cornfield : a field of grain with poppies fluttering in it. 



Notes 8 1 

11. bean-flowers' boon : the delicious scent of a field of 
beans in blossom, 

15. precipice-encurled: surrounded by precipices. 
22. cicala : the cricket. 

35. the king : another allusion to the efforts of the Italian 
patriots to free their country from foreign dominion. 

36. liver-wing : the right wing under which the liver was 
placed when the bird was roasted. Here it is used for the right 
arm. 

40. Queen Mary's saying : Mary Tudor grieved so for the 
loss of Calais in 1588 that she said the word would be found 
written on her heart 

MEMORABILIA 

First published in Men and Women, 1855. Memorabilia 
renders homage to Shelley by signalizing the moment when 
an unappreciative person's remembrance of him was made 
known, like a moor blank of interest save for the space where 
the sign of an eagle's flight was found and prized. Professor 
Corson thinks that the eagle feather "causes an isolated flash 
of association with the poet of atmosphere, the winds, and 
the clouds." 

INSTANS TYRANNUS 

First published in Men and Women, 1855. Instans Tyr annus 
is a phrase taken from a well-known ode of Horace, meaning 
" Threatening tyrant." The poem supposes that for some un- 
known reason a poor, contemptible man was the object of the 
tyrant's hate. The tyrant becomes exasperated by the very 
insignificance of the creature : he struck him, tried to bribe 
him, tempted his flesh and blood. But at the critical moment, 
the victim threw himself on the protection of God. The 
wretch 

" caught at God's skirts and prayed! 
So, / was afraid I " 



82 Browning's Poems 

It shows how strong the weakest man may become when he 
is in the right and has the force of good on his side. 

15. So, I set my five wits on the stretch : i.e. I tried every 
means to tempt him, to bribe him, to harm him through his 
friends or relatives, but in vain. He was so obscure that he 
could not be harmed by any of these means. 

18. perdue : hidden. 

21. cates : dainties, spilth : that which is spilled ; here the 
wine. 

29. pelf : booty ; compare, to pilfer. 

31. chafe : impatience. 

33. nit : the egg of some minute insect. 

35. humor : idea. 

44. gravamen : grievance. 

63. marge : margin, edge. 

64. targe : shield. 

65. boss : the stud on the center of a shield. 

TRAY 

First published in Dramatic Idyls, 1879. The writer of the 
poem is urging three bards to tell him a tale of a hero with a 
soul. The first bard begins a tale of a knight, but is soon 
stopped. The second bard begins a blood-curdling tale, but 
also fails to satisfy the hearer and is stopped likewise. Then 
the third bard begins a good story of the dog Tray, the real 
theme of the poem. The last touch in this praise of Tray is the 
picture of the unconscious inferiority of one of the bystanders, 
who so little appreciates the spiritual quality of heroism that 
he proposes to vivisect the dog's brain and locate his valor. 
The incident of the dog was actually witnessed by a friend of 
Browning's in Paris. 

4. helm: helmet, eke: also, in addition, habergeon: a 
coat of linked mail covering the neck and breast. 

7. ope : poetic form for open. 

19. instinctive dog: i.e. an animal which acts on instinct. 



Notes 83 

22. in mouth : in (his) mouth. 

32. prime : first-rate, capital. For another use of this word 
compare The Pied Piper, Hne 177. 

41. John : the servant of the bystander who is speaking. 

43. at expense : at (the) expense. Browning frequently 
uses this short, crabbed style, omitting articles, prepositions, 
conjunctions, and all other words not absolutely necessary for 
the sense. This characteristic tends to cause obscurity, but 
it makes the style more vigorous. 

CAVALIER TUNES 

First published in Dramatic Lyrics, 1842. The Cavalier 
Tunes consist of three rousing songs, with chorus, full of 
enthusiasm for the cause of King Charles and of defiance for 
his opponents, the Roundheads. Note the difference in rhythm. 
The first suggests the swing of marching men, the second is 
a drinking song, and the third suggests galloping horsemen. 

I. Marching Along 

Note that the first, third, and fifth verses of each stanza 
rhyme in the middle as well as at the end. 

1. Kentish Sir Byng : no particular person is meant. The 
name was chosen, perhaps, to rhyme with King. It is used 
for a typical Kentish squire, loyal to King Charles. 

2. Bidding the crop-headed Parliament swing : telling them 
to " go hang." crop-headed : as the shop workers from the 
towns who fought on the side of the Puritans wore their hair 
closely cropped the Puritan Parliament was called " crop- 
headed." 

3. pressing : impressing, enrolling by force. 

4. rogues : the Roundheads, the opponents of King Charles. 
7. Pym : John Pym was one of the leaders of the Parliament 

party. John Hampden, verse 13, was another. Hampden 
was an advocate for the people against the right of the king 
to exact the ship-money tax. carles : churls, low fellows. 



84 Browning's Poems 

8. paries: speeches. 

14. Hazelrig : Sir Arthur Hazelrig, an important adherent 
of OHver Cromwell. He was one of the five members of ParHa- 
ment King Charles tried to impeach in 1642. Fiennes: 
Nathaniel Fiennes was a rigid Presbyterian and a leading 
adherent of OHver Cromwell, young Harry : son of Sir Henry 
Vane, Secretary of State to King Charles. He held different 
views from those of his father and became distinguished as a 
Liberal. 

15. Rupert: Prince Rupert of the Palatine, a nephew of 
King Charles, was a noted cavalry leader of the RoyaHsts. 
He proved himself a brave but imprudent soldier. 

22. Nottingham: the King himself gave the signal for the 
beginning of the war by raising the royal standard at Notting- 
ham in 1642. 

II. Give a Rouse 

Browning may have had in mind Shakespeare's use of the 
word " Rouse" for the shout that accompanies drinking. 
1. do him right : maintain that he's right, support him. 
5. goods that went since : confiscated by the Puritans. 

16. NoU's damned troopers: Oliver Cromwell's own com- 
pany of horse, noted for their discipHne and valor. Noll is 
short for Oliver. 

III. Boot and Saddle 

The original title of this song was " My Wife Gertrude." 
It is supposed to be sung by a party of Royalists who are riding 
to the rescue of Castle Brancepeth, which was besieged by the 
Puritans. 

9. roebuck : the male of the deer. 

10. Flouts: mocks at, scoffs at. Castle Brancepeth: a 
Royalist stronghold near Durham. 

11. fay : faith, loyalty. 



Notes - 85 

HERVE RIEL 

Published in Pacchiarotto, 1876. This stirring ballad was 
first published in The Cornhill Magazine in 187 1 and the 
proceeds, one hundred pounds sterling, were given to the fund 
for the sufferers from the siege of Paris. The poem is a gracious 
tribute from an Englishman to the French, and shows how a 
Frenchman can do a great service to his country and ask but 
an insignificant reward. The story is historical. In the war 
between the English and Dutch and the French, after the 
battle of La Hogue, 1692, the French fleet was in danger of 
capture by the English. A simple Breton sailor guided the 
fleet through a channel which the pilots declared impassable 
and thus saved it from capture by the English. In the oflicial 
account the sailor is said to have asked for dismissal from the 
service as his reward. Browning, however, made the story 
more dramatic by contrasting the greatness of the achievement 
and the slightness of the reward the sailor asked for and re- 
ceived. 

4. Like a crowd of frightened porpoises (which) a shoal of 
sharks pursue. 

5. Saint-Malo : a seaport at the mouth of the Ranee. 

8. Damfreville : the commander of the French squadron 
which was fleeing. 

17. starboard : right side, port : left side. 

21. with flow at full beside : even when the tide is high. 

30. Plymouth Sound : an English naval station. 

43. pressed: see note on pressing, Marching Along, line 3. 
Tourville : the French admiral. 

44. Croisickese : a native of Croisic, a small town in Brittany. 
46. Malouins : inhabitants of Saint-Malo. 

49. Greve : the sands between Saint-Malo and Mount 
Saint Michel, disembogues : empties. 

50. Is it love the lying's for? i.e. Do you he for the mere love 
of it? 



86 Browning's Poems 

61. Solidor: at the mouth of the Ranee. 

82. hollas: calls, cries out, shouts. 

128. a head in white and black: a figurehead on a ship. 

131. bore the bell : gained the victory. 

134. Louvre: the Palace of the Louvre in Paris is the great 
national gallery where are gathered statues or portraits of the 
great men of France. There one searches in vain for a statue 
of Herve Riel. 

PHEIDIPPIDES 

First published in Dramatic Idyls, 1879. 

Xa/pere, vlkQ/xcp. Rejoice ; we conquer. 

The facts related in this poem belong to Greek legendary 
history, and are told by Herodotus and other writers. " When 
Athens was threatened by the invading Persians, she sent 
a running messenger to Sparta, to demand help against the 
foreign foe. The mission was unsuccessful. But the ' runner' 
Pheidippides fell in on his return with the god Pan ; and though 
alone among the Greeks the Athenians had refused to honor 
him, Pan promised to fight with them in the coming battle. 
Pheidippides was present, when this battle — that of Mara- 
thon — was fought and won. He ' ran' once more, to an- 
nounce the victory at Athens ; and fell, dead, with the words 
'Rejoice; we conquer!' on his lips." (Handbook to Brown- 
ing's Works.) 

2. daemons : tutelary divinities, between men and gods. 

4. Her of the aegis and spear: Pallas Athena. The aegis 
was a shield having on it the head of the Gorgon Medusa, and 
was worn by Pallas Athena. 

5. ye of the bow and the buskin : Diana, the huntress, whose 
statues often represent her as wearing the buskin or high 
hunting boot. 

8. Pan : the god of the forest. He was represented as half 
man and half goat and his appearance caused people to be 
frightened ; hence from the name of the god comes the word 



Notes 87 

" panic." The belie! was that Pan turned the tide of battle 
at Marathon by filling the enemy with terror. 

9. Archons : the chief magistrates of Athens were called 
archons, rulers, tettix : the grasshopper. " The Athenians 
sometimes wore golden grasshoppers in their hair as badges of 
honor, because these insects are supposed to spring from the 
ground, and thus they showed that they were sprung from the 
original inhabitants of the country." (Berdoe : Browning 
Cyclopaedia.) 

12. reach Sparta : in the southernmost part of Greece, about 
140 miles from Athens. 

13. Persia has come : Darius the Great, at the head of an 
immense Persian force, invaded Greece, 4^3 B.C., but was 
defeated in the battle of Marathon. 

18. water and earth : Darius sent heralds into all parts of 
Greece to require, according to the custom of the Persians 
when they wished to exact submission, water and earth, as 
these two elements were the symbols of freedom. 

19. Eretria : a city on the island of Eubcea, north of Athens. 

31. quarry : prey. 

32. Phoibus: Phoebus Apollo. 

38. the moon, half-orbed : " The Spartans wished to help 
the Athenians, but were unable to give them any present 
succor, as they did not like to break their established law. It 
was the ninth day of the first decade, and they could not march 
out of Sparta on the ninth, when the moon had not reached the 
full. So they waited for the full of the moon." Herodotus. 

41. except for that sparkle : were it not for the fervor which 
the name of Athens inspires, I would have burnt up with the 
rage that was in me. 

47. filleted victim : the head of a victim for sacrifice was 
decorated with ribbons, fulsome libation: a libation was an 
offering of oil or wine poured on the ground in honor of some 
god. fulsome : lavish, copious, abundant. 

49. Oak and olive and bay : the leaves of the oak, olive, and 



88 Browning's Poems 

bay or laurel were used for making wreaths or crowns, the 
marks of honor. 

52. Parnes : Herodotus calls the mountain Parthenion. 

62. Erebos: Hades. 

65. majestical Pan : " Pan was the protecting deity of 
flocks and herds and hunters. He was represented by the 
ancients with a pug nose, very hairy, and with horns and feet 
of a goat. He was described as wandering about in the woods 
and dales and hills, playing with the nymphs and looking after 
the flocks. ... He was the god of prophecy, and there were 
oracles of Pan." (Berdoe : Browning Cyclopaedia.) Read 
Mrs. Browning's poem The Dead Pan. 

72. Athens . . . holds me aloof: up to this time 
Athens had refused to give Pan the usual honors of worship. 

73. fane ; shrine, altar. 

80. Goat-thigh to greaved-thigh : Pan with his thighs of 
a goat would fight side by side with the Athenians whose 
thighs were protected by leg armor or greaves. 

83. Fennel . . . whatever it bode : what it meant 
was that the great battle was to be fought in a fennel field, 
Marathon, as fennel in Greek is Marathon. 

87. we stand no more on the razor's edge : a Greek pro- 
verbial expression for extreme peril. 

88. guerdon: prize. 

89. Miltiades : one of the ten Athenian generals command- 
ing the army that won the battle. 

96. pelf : see note on Instans Tyrannus, line 29. 

106. Akropolis: the citadel of a Greek city was called 
Akropolis. 

107. meed : reward. 

THE PATRIOT 

• 

First published in Men and Women, 1855. " An old story," 
because in all ages men have experienced this fickleness of 
popular favor. Only a year ago, the " patriot" entered the 



Notes 89 

city a hero, amid the. shouts of the people. To-day he passes 
out of it on his way to execution. He is " safer so," he thinks, 
for the reward men have withheld awaits him at the hands of 
God. Perhaps Browning caught a hint for this poem from 
his life in Florence, where Italian patriots were trying to 
liberate their country. 

12. To give it (to) my loving friends to keep. 

17. set: placed there by their friends as they could not go 
to the place of execution on account of their crippled con- 
dition. In this stanza Browning gives a picture of the people 
formerly wild with enthusiasm over the " patriot," but now 
aU crowding to get the best places to see him executed. 

RABBI BEN EZRA 

First published in Dramatis PersoncB, 1864. Rabbi Ben 
Ezra, or Ibn Ezra, was a learned Jew of the eleventh century. 
He was poor, but studied hard and wrote many treatises on 
Hebrew grammar, astronomy, mathematics, and commen- 
taries on the books of the Bible. " The most striking feature 
of Rabbi Ben Ezra's philosophy is his estimate of age. Accord- 
ing to him the soul is eternal, but it completes the first stage 
of its experience in the earthly life ; and the climax of the 
earthly life is attained, not in the middle of it, but at its close. 
Age is therefore a period, not only of rest, but of fruition." 
(Handbook to Browning's Works.) 

So far as we can judge from the remains of the old Jewish 
rabbi's works, Browning has faithfully represented his 
philosophy. The aged rabbi is addressing some young friend. 
He says that we should not remonstrate with the hopes and 
aspirations of youth, but should encourage them. Satis- 
faction with mere material things is a sign of the brute. Yet 
we must not despise the flesh, for the highest achievement is 
where the flesh and spirit work in harmony. Keeping this 
always before us we shall be ready for age, in the summing 
up of life's gains and losses. x'VU imperfect plans, the half- 



90 Browning's Poems 

achieved deeds, the things dreamed of but not dared — these 
are to count with God. In death comes the fruition of all 
youth and the consummation of age. Compare with this 
thought Tennyson's St. Simeon Stylites for an account of 
a lower form of ascetic ideal. 

7. Not that, amassing flowers, etc. : I do not remonstrate 
that youth, amassing flowers, sighed " Which rose make ours, 
which lily leave, and then change my choice?" 

24. Irks care : does care irk . . . does doubt fret. 

29. Nearer we hold of God : have title to a nearer relation- 
ship with God. 

37. paradox: a statement that is apparently contradictory. 

40. What I aspired to be : " 'tis not what man does which 
exalts him but what man would do." Saul, 296. 

47. Thy body at its best: how far can the body help the 
soul on its lone way. 

50. Past : the past of his own life. 

52. dole : part, share. 

57. I, who saw power, see now Love perfect too : in my 
youth I saw God as power only ; now I see him as love also. 

68. Spite of this flesh to-day : the old idea of the flesh as 
something we must subdue. 

75. term : end, limit. 

77. for aye : for ever. 

84. indue : put on. 

87. Leave the fire ashes : " fire" is the conflicts of life, 
" gold" is whatever has proved to be of permanent worth, 
while " ashes" is used for whatever has failed to stand the 
test of time. 

92. A certain moment: the moment between the fading 
of the sunset and the coming of the darkness of night. This is 
the time to appraise the work of the day. So old age is the 
period for appraising the life of the past. 

105. To act to-morrow what he learns to-day: to put into 
action to-morrow what he has learned to-day. 



Notes 91 

109. As it was better, etc. : youth should not be content 
with what has been gained, but should ever strive upward 
toward something better, even if its work is crude. 

124. Was I, the world arraigned: the relative pronouns are 
omitted. " Was I (whom) the world arraigned or were they 
(whom) my soul disdained, right?" 

135. that took the eye and had the price : cheap, tawdry 
things that easily measure up to the world's low standard. 

138. trice : an instant of time. 

150. whose wheel the pitcher shaped : the metaphor of the 
potter's wheel is quite common. Compare Is. 64, 8, ''But 
now, Lord, thou art our father ; we are the clay and thou 
art our potter, and we all are the work of thy hand." Compare 
also Edward Fitzgerald's Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, stanzas 
83-90. 

169. What though the earlier grooves, etc. : as the pitcher 
grows in the hands of the potter, no longer the tools press 
laughing loves, symbolical of youth, in the clay, but graver 
objects, symboHcal of age, take their place as the potter finishes 
the rim. 

EPILOGUE TO ASOLANDO 

The last poem that Browning wrote, his ultimate expression 
of his noble optimism. " One evening just before his death 
illness, the poet was reading this from a proof to his daughter- 
in-law and his sister. He said : ' It almost looks like bragging 
to say this, and as if I ought to cancel it ; but it's the simple 
truth ; and as it's true, it shall stand.' " Compare Tennyson's 
Crossing the Bar. 



INDEX OF TITLES 

The references are to pages. The first reference is to the text ; the 
second, to the notes. 

Boot and Saddle, 44, 84. 
Cavalier Tunes, 42, 83. 
"De Gustibus— ," 36, 80. 
Epilogue to Asolando, 66, 91. 
Eurydice to Orpheus, 5, 71. 
Face, A, i, 69. 
Give a Rouse, 43, 84. 
Herv6 Riel, 45, 85. 

Home-Thoughts, from Abroad, 15, 75. 
Home-Thoughts, from the Sea, 16, 76. 

"How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix," 7, 72. 
Incident of the French Camp, 9, 73. 
Instans Tyrannus, 38, 81. 
Italian in England, The, 16, 76. 
Lost Leader, The, 11, 73. 
Love among the Ruins, 12, 75. 
Marching Along, 42, 83. 
Meeting at Night, 6, 72. 
Memorabilia, 2>ly 81. 
"Moth's Kiss, First, The," 6, 72. 
My Last Duchess, 2, 70. 
My Star, i, 69. 
Parting at Morning, 7, 72. 
Patriot, The, 58, 88. 
Pheidippides, 51, 86, 
Pied Piper of Hamelin, The, 25, 7g. 
Pippa Passes, Songs from, 4, 70. 
Rabbi Ben Ezra, 59, 89. 
Tray, 41, 82. 

Up at a Villa — Down in the City, 21, 77. 

93 



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Each volume is provided with introductory matter, ade- 
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The following books are now ready : — 

ADDISON. De Cover ley Papers 

Edited by SAMUEL Thurber. 

This volume contains thirty-seven papers of which twenty have 
Sir Roger as the main theme, and seventeen mention him in 
such a way as to throw further hght on his character. 
The book contains a portrait of Addison. 

Select Essays 
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The editor has aimed to bring together such papers from the 
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prove most readable to youth of high school age. There are 
seventy selections in all, including the De Coverley Papers and 
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ARNOLD. Essays in Criticism 

Edited by Susan S. Sheridan. 

The essays are those on the Study of Poetry, on Keats, and on 
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Rugby Chapel 

Edited by L. D. Syle. (In Four English Poems. 
Sohrab '.nd Rustum 
Edited by G. A. Watrous. (In Three Narrative Poems. 



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BLACKMORE. Lorna Doone 

Edited by R. Adelaide Witham. 

This edition is printed on bible paper and is uniform with Ivanhoe. 
The editor has made a visit to the Doone country, and this gives 
special interest to her notes and comments. 

BURKE, Conciliation with the Colonies 
Edited by C. B. Bradley. 

This book contains the complete speech, and a sketch of the 
Enghsh Constitution and Government. 
The frontispiece is a portrait of Burke. 

BURNS. Selections 

Edited by Lois G. HUFFORD. 

The selections are forty-five in number and include The Cotter's 
Saturday Night, Tam O'Shanter, The Vision, The Brigs of Ayr, 
and all the more familiar short poems and songs. 
The book contains a portrait of Burns. 

BYRON. The Prisoner of Chillon 

Edited by L. D. Syle. (In Four English Poems 

CARLYLE. Essay on Burns 
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In addition to the Essay on Burns, this edition contains The 
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Selections 

Edited by H, W. BOYNTON, 

This volume includes material for the elementary study of Carlyle 
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on Burns, on History, on Boswell's Life of Johnson, and selec- 
tions from Heroes and Hero- Worship (the introduction; the 
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COLERIDGE. The Ancient Mariner 

Edited by G. A. WaTROUS. (In Three Narrative Poem' 

COWPER. John Gilpin's Ride 

Edited by L. D. Syle. (In Four English Poems. 

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GEORGE ELIOT. Silas Marner 

Edited by W. PATTERSON Atkinson. 

The introduction contains a brief life of George Eliot, an account 
of the writing of Silas Marner, and a short list of works on the 
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EMERSON. Select Essays and Poems 

Edited by Eva March Tappan. 

The Essays are those on Compensation, Self-reliance, and 
Manners. There are also nine of the best-known poems. A 
feature of the book is the suggestive questions at the bottom of 
each page which keep the pupil's attention on the alert and at 
the same time aid in the interpretation of the text. 
This edition has a portrait of Emerson. 



GOLDSMITH. The Vicar of Wakefield 

Edited by R. Adelaide Witham. 

The introduction to the work contams a Bibliography of the Life 
of Goldsmith, a Bibliogi'aphy of Criticism, a Life of Goidsmith ar- 
ranged by topics, a Table of Masterpieces published during his 
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There is a portrait of the author. 

The Traveller and the Deserted Village 
Edited by G. A. Watrous. (In Selected Poems. 

GRAY. Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard and The Progress 
of Poesy. 
Edited by G. A. Watrous. (In Selected Poems. 

I IRVING. Life of Goldsmith 

Edited by R, Adelaide Witham. 

The editor has furnished a Life of Irving arranged by topics, with 
references to Pierre Irving's life of his uncle. There is also an 
arrangement of the text by topics, for convenience in assigning 
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The Sketch-Book 

Edited by Elmer E. Wentworth. 

This is the most attractive edition of the complete Sketch-Book 
published at a reasonable price. Print, paper, and binding are ex- 
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IRVING. Selections from The Sketch-Book 

Edited by Elmer E, Wentworth. 

This edition contains Irving's original Preface and Advertise- 
ment, The Author's Account of Himself, The Voyage, The Wife, 
Rip Van Winkle, Sunday in London, The Art of Bookmaking, 
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Bridegroom, Westminster Abbey, Christmas, The Stage Coach, 
Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Stratford-on-Avon, To my Books, 
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. 

These selections furnish the pupil with over two hundred pages 
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LOWELL. The Vision of Sir Launfal and Other Poems 
Edited by Dr. F. R. Lane. 

Besides the Vision of Sir Launfal there are thirteen poems, includ- 
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by Giotto, A Fable for Critics. W^at Mr. Robinson thinks, The 
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MACAULAY. Select Essays 
Edited by Samuel Thurber. 

This selection comprises the essays on Milton, Bunyan, Johnson, 
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Historical Essays 

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This selection includes the essays on Lord Clive, Warren Hastings, 
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Macaulay. 

MACAULAY. Edited by SAMUEL Thurber 
Essay on Addison Essay on Johnson 

Essay on Lord Clive Essay on Milton 

Essays on Milton and Addison Essay on Chatham 

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MACAULAY. Essay on Warren Hastings 
Edited by JOSEPH V. Denney. 

This edition will be found especially useful to pupils in composition 
who are studying Macaulay for structure. The essay affords con- 
spicuously excellent illustrations of all four forms of discourse, — 
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MILTON. Minor Poems 

Edited by Samuel Thurber. 

L'AUegro ; II Penseroso ; Comus ; Lycidas ; Arcades ; On the 
Nativity; On Shakespeare; At a Solemn Music; Sonnets. The 
edition has an introduction, notes, and a portrait of Milton. 

Paradise Lost, Books I and II 

Edited by Henry W. Boynton. 

This edition has the first two books of Paradise Lost complete and 
a r6sum6 of the rest of the epic, with quotations of notable passages. 
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his daughters. 

POPE, The Rape of the Lock 

Edited by L. D. Syle. (In Four English Poems. 

An Essay on Criticism 
Edited by GEORGE A. Watrous. (In Selected Poems. 

SCOTT. Ivanhoe ' 

Edited by A. Marion Merrill. 

This edition is unusually complete both in introductory matter and 
in notes. It is printed on bible paper to make it uniform in size 
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The Lady of the Lake 
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In addition to the introduction and notes, this edition contains a 
map of the Trosachs and vicinity and a portrait of Scott. 

Marmion 
• Edited by Mary E. Adams. 

This edition contains an introduction, notes, a glossary, a map d 
the Marmion country, and a portrait of Scott. 

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SHAKESPEARE. New Editions. Edited by Samuel Thurber, Jr. 
Merchant of Venice. Julius Caesar. Macbeth. (At Press.) 

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SHAKESPEARE. Edited by Samuel Thurber. 
As You Like It. Macbeth. The Tempest. 

Hamlet (with Pearson's Questions on Hamlet). 

SPENCER. The Philosophy of Style 

With Wright's Essay on Style. Edited by F. N . Scott. 
The Introduction is biographical and critical. 

STEVENSON. Treasure Island 

Edited by W. D. Lewis. 

This edition has a short introduction and a life of Stevenson. 
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The book contains illustrations from original drawings and a map 

An Inland Voyage and Travels with a Donkey 

Edited by James Cloyd Bowman. 

This edition contains not only maps of these interesting journeys 
but also many half-tone illustrations. The Introduction contains 
a life of Stevensop and a bibliography. 

TENNYSON. Enoch Arden 

Edited by GEORGE A. WatrouS. (In TAree Narrative Poems 

Idylls of the King 

Edited by H. W. BOYNTON. 

This edition contains The Coming of Arthur, Gareth and Lynette, 
Lancelot and Elaine, The Holy Grail. The Passing of Arthur. 
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ments both for reading and for study. There is a portrait of the 
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WEBSTER. Reply to Hayne 
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This edition contains a brief life of Webster and an account of the 
circumstances under which the speech was delivered. There is a 
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Four English Poems 

Edited by L. D. Syle. 

The Rape of the Lock, John Gilpin's Ride, The Prisoner of 
Chillon, and Rugby Chapel. This edition has an introduction, 
notes, and a portrait of Lord Byron. 

Selected Poems from Pope, Gray, and Goldsmith 

Edited by GEORGE A. Watrous. . 

The poems included are Pope's Essay on Criticism, Gray's Elegy 
and Progress of Poesy, and Goldsmith's Traveller and Deserted 
Village. The book has an introduction, notes, and a portrait of 
Pope! 

Three Narrative Poems 

Edited by GEORGE A. WATROUS. 

This volume contains The Ancient Mariner, Sohrab and Rustum, 
and Enoch Arden. A map makes plain the geography of Sohrab 
and Rustum. 

Two of the selections in this book — The Ancient Mariner and 
Sohrab and Rustum — appear in the College Entrance Require- 
ments in English. There is a portrait of Coleridge. 

The Short-Story 

Edited by W. PATTERSON Atkinson. 

The selections are Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle, Edgar 
Allan Poe's The Gold Bug and The Purloined Letter, Nathaniel 
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